ATLA Wanderings
by wherewulf
Summary: Short stories and one-shots based on Avatar: the Last Airbender.
1. A Stone's Throw Away

_**A Stone's Throw Away**_

Bumi surveyed the field and thought. Then he chose.

He levitated a chunk of rock above the ground with his Earthbending, and with a mighty heave he hurled it across the plain. He brought his wrist back slightly. The chunk stopped in midair, then _crunched_ into the ground.

"You call that a move, old man?"

He looked across at his opponent. "You have yet to better, baby face!"

Toph laughed. She considered-then nonchalantly flicked her wrist. A chunk of rock popped up off the ground. With a roundhouse kick she sent it flying. After a moment she stopped its flight, and it too obediently _crunched_ into place.

Bumi nodded. "Not bad."

"Think you can do better, Wrinkles?"

"You'll just have to see, won't you, Cheeky?" With that, he hurled another rock.

On the ridge above, Katara looked on, dubious. "I don't know if this is such a good idea."

"Aw, come on, Katara!" Aang shrugged. "It's just a little fun."

"I don't know..."

"Besides, I get to watch two master Earthbenders at work, study their technique. I just might learn something."

"Yeah. Learn something." Sokka nodded. "You see, Katara, this is educational."

"Yeah, educational… right down to the trash talking?"

"Come on, Katara, you know how they were at Earth Rumble Six-this isn't _that_ much worse."

"No, but I should have invented potty training—just for you!" yelled Bumi.

Katara glared.

Aang laughed nervously. "Okay, maybe it is a little worse."

The rocks continued to fly—along with the insults. Both opponents were pretty jovial. Aang continued to watch the Earthbending and where the rocks were landing, Sokka wrote down a few original insults he heard (for later use), and Katara alternated between rolling her eyes and glaring, sometimes doing both. But then…

"Uh-oh…"

Sokka looked at Aang. "What?"

Aang smiled. "I think Toph missed something."

"She did? Where?"

Toph flung another rock. Bumi answered quickly. Aang winced a little. "Oooo, that didn't help."

"What?"

Aang pointed. "Right there. She shouldn't have done that. And if she doesn't—"

Another rock of Toph's flew. "Oh, I see now." Sokka grimaced. "Oof. She's not gonna be happy."

"No."

"Are we up high enough, you think?"

Another rock whizzed by. "What do _you_ think?"

Toph flung another rock. Bumi readied another throw—but Toph raised her hands. "Wait! I want to change my move!"

"I'm sorry, there are no take-backsies in this game."

"Aw, come on, please?"

Katara elbowed Aang. "Write down the date. That's the first time I've heard Toph say 'please' about anything." Aang laughed.

"Well…" Bumi considered. "Okay. Just this once."

"Thanks. You're pretty nice-for an old man." Toph lifted a rock from one place on the field, then hovered it over to a new spot.

"Why, thank you. And just for that…" Bumi lifted a rock ever so gently, and sent it in a graceful arc to its place. The disc landed with a gentle plop. "And that's the game."

"*What?* I-you—_uhhhh!_"

Aang tried not to chuckle. He knew he didn't know anywhere near as much about _pai sho_ as Bumi did, but as the heavy carved disks fell into place one by one, even he could sense the endgame coming.

"Wanna play again?" Bumi asked. "You play pretty well-for someone in diapers."

Toph growled. She lunged.

An Earthbending current rumbled across the field, and a hole opened up under Bumi—who fell in. "Hoooooooo-hoo-hooooo!"

He replied from below with a current of his own-and an Earth wave slapped at Toph. She cleaved it in two, and started hurling rocks at Bumi, game pieces and all, with a fierce smile on her face. Bumi started doing the same thing, laughing and snorting.

Aang backed away from the ledge. "Uh, guys… much as this is _very_ educational…"

Katara nodded. "I couldn't agree more."

They moved back-then came back to drag Sokka away from the edge, who was howling, laughing, and all but drooling and foaming at the game-which by now had turned from a stately, formal game of _pai sho_ into an Earthbending version of Whack-a-Badgermole.


	2. What Goes Around

**Title: What Goes Around...**

**Author: wherewulf**

**Rating: K+**

**Genre(s): Avatar**

**Plot Summary: Sokka goes to rescue one of his earliest loves.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>What Goes Around...<strong>_

The climb was slow and painful. But it had to be done.

Sokka gritted his teeth with every move up. His hands hurt, cut in some places by the rocks. The waterfall nearby didn't help; it made the rocks slick. More than once he had slipped and fallen back, once just barely catching himself.

He was angry, and more than a little anxious. _He'd better not..._ Another heave up. He looked for good hand- and footholds. Another move up. _But what if...? No!_

A handhold gave way. Rocks tore away and fell to the valley below. Luckily he had a good foothold, and held. That made him angrier. He kept going.

He reached the lip of a cave and pulled himself over the edge. The water flowed past, making a constant low roar. He rested a moment, and looked into the cave. It was dark... very dark.

He checked to make sure that his war club was in its sling on his back. It was there, but he did not draw it out. He waited. His breathing slowed, and his eyes grew accustomed to the dark. Eventually he became aware of two glowing eyes, watching him.

It was what he was waiting for.

He got up. The roof of the cave was low, but he was able to stand hunched over. Slowly and carefully he made his way toward the eyes. About six or seven paces away, he stopped. The eyes were still watching him. He could hear a purring chittering. Then it stopped. He edged a little closer, then knelt.

"I'm sorry."

More chittering.

"I know I shouldn't have thrown my boomerang at you."

The chittering changed to a growl.

"I wanted to apologize, and I brought you these."

He took off his backpack, and opened it. The pack was filled with fruit.

An interested purr-chitter.

"Can I have my boomerang back? Please? If I give you these?"

Momo came out of the shadows. He looked... then took some of the fruit.

"There we go... that's it... I promise I won't throw my boomerang at you again..." He dropped his voice. "Unless I feel like it."

Momo stopped eating. And chattering. He started shrieking at Sokka. Then he ran to the back of the cave.

"Oh, no, Momo, I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it, honest!" Sokka got up and ran. "No please don't—"

There was a hole in the back of the cave; light was coming up through it. Momo grabbed the boomerang.

"Oh, no no no no no no no—"

And threw it down the hole.

"Nooooooooo!"

Sokka stood there just a few paces from the hole, hands outstretched. He lowered his hands and listened. And cringed with every sound.

_Choonk! Klink! Crunch!_

_Sploosh._

Laughter lilted up from below.

"You're real good at talking to animals, huh, Snoozles?"

Sokka growled and headed back for his backpack. He looked over his shoulder at Momo. "We _will_ speak of this again."

Momo growl-chittered at him, then grinned fiercely at him, saying very clearly: _We'd __better__ not._


	3. Light My Candle?

I wrote this a few years ago after a silly conversation with Chaka and Crystle from Kataang Forever, and yes, _Rent_ was involved. XD Hope you like it. All comments appreciated.

_Avatar: the Last Airbender_, of course, is the property of Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, and by extension of Nickelodeon and its associated corporations. They don't own the errors herein; those are mine.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Light My Candle<strong>__**?**_

Zuko was walking down a wide hallway in the Fire Palace when he saw a row of wide white candles in a trough of sand; a trough of water was on the other side, esthetically balancing the candles. He looked. Then he smiled, lined up on one end, and punched. One stream of fire lit all the candles. He grinned and walked away.

A while later Aang came from the other side. He saw the candles... and frowned. He lined up on the other side, reared back, and brought forth his arm, palm out. A gust of wind blew out all the candles. He smiled, and went on his way.

Some time after that, Zuko came back—and saw the candles weren't lit. He frowned, went to the other end, and punched. That relit the candles. He smiled, and left.

Aang came back. The candles were lit. _He_ frowned. He lined up and waved. Air blew out the candles again. He smiled, and headed on.

Zuko walked through the hallway only to see the candles blown out—again. He growled. One punch later, the candles were lit—again. He left.

A moment later, Aang came through and saw a bunch of lit candles. Again. He wasn't happy. One wave of wind took care of that. He went down the other hallway.

Zuko came by again. Again the candles were blown out. He stomped over to the other end, punched, and lit the candles. He was almost out of the room when Aang happened by again, saw Aang react, and saw Aang blow out the candles. Again.

Beside himself, Zuko went to the other side, punched, and lit the candles. Aang blew them out. He relit them. Aang blew them out. He lit them again. Again Aang snuffed them. He lit them again—

—And spluttered as a wave of water caught him, Aang, and the candles, washing the whole thing down. Katara was standing by the doorway, a perturbed/amused look on her face.

Katara dragged Aang back to their room, and Aang stuck his tongue out at Zuko. Zuko started to steam—literally—until Mai, with a quiet chuckle, gently dragged him away too.


	4. Tea for Three

Thanks again for reading, everybody. And J.W. Appel-I'm thinking about it. XD I have an idea involving Sokka instead of Suki and no Avatar State, but I'll get back to you.

I have more to say about this particular story, but I'll wait until after you've read it to get to that. Once again, _Avatar: the Last Airbender_ is the property of Bryan Konietzko and Mike DiMartino, and of course by extension the property of Nickelodeon and its associated corporations. And also once again, my great thanks to Mike and Bryan for creating _Avatar_ (the real one) in the first place. XD

* * *

><p><strong><em>Tea for Three<em>**

The weather turned cooler in Ba Sing Se as fall approached. The days slowly grew shorter, and the leaves began to change color. Iroh started counting down the days and making preparations. He had done this before, but never in Ba Sing Se, of all places. Life had its ironies—or its little jokes, depending on how you looked at it.

The tea part was easy. He _was_ part-owner of the Jasmine Dragon. Incense, again, not a problem, but it took him a while to find the right scent; this was Ba Sing Se, but even here, Fire Nation imports came in at a slow trickle. The fruit he waited til the day of to pick up. Same with the moon cakes. He wanted them all as fresh as possible.

And last, but not least, company.

"I would be honored if you would join me tonight," he said to Toph at the Gaang's house.

"Really? How come?"

"I am remembering someone. Tonight is the Viewing of the Moon, both here and in the Fire Nation. My son, Lu Ten, enjoyed this time of year."

Toph thought about it briefly, then nodded. "I'll be happy to."

That caught the Gaang's attention. It was a rare thing for Toph to be "happy" to do anything someone asked.

o o o

"In a way, it's funny that I am doing this now," Iroh said to Toph on the way to that one particular tree on that one particular hill. "I was here once before, a long time ago, as a Fire Nation general. I wanted to capture Ba Sing Se." He chuckled. "And now here I am, running a _tea shop in_ Ba Sing Se. Destiny is a funny thing."

"You make good tea." Toph said, grinning. "You _could_ say you're conquering your customers."

Iroh laughed. "Yes. I suppose I am."

They neared the hill. The sun had just gone down, and the full moon, a dim red, was just coming over the horizon.

"So why tonight?" Toph asked.

"Hmmm?"

"Why did you want to remember your son tonight?"

"Sentimental reasons. My son liked moon cakes. Especially the ones they make here, in the Earth Kingdom. We have them in the Fire Nation, too." Iroh dropped his voice, and behind his hand he said, "But we make them more spicy."

Toph laughed.

They watched the moon rise. Stars began to come out in the deepening blue sky.

"I wish you could see how beautiful the moon is tonight," said Iroh. "How it is changing color... red... to orange... to yellow."

"Oh, I can see the moon."

Iroh was astonished. "You can?"

"Are you kidding? A big hunk of rock in the sky? It's kind of hard to miss."

"Really? What _do_ you see, when you see the moon?"

"Just that. A big hunk of rock." Toph shrugged. "Nothing special, really."

Iroh thought he heard a slight, amused "_Hmph!_", but he wasn't sure.

Finally the moon had risen high enough to be pure white. Iroh nodded. He kindled the fire using flint and steel, then laid on some smaller sticks when the fire was high enough.

It was Toph's turn to be surprised. "Why didn't you Firebend to start the fire?"

Iroh grinned. "Recent practice. It was good to be discreet with my Firebending while in the Earth Kingdom." He laughed. "As my nephew pointed out to me!"

Toph leaned back. "Zuko, you mean."

"Yes." He sighed. "I wish he were here tonight. I would have invited him, too."

He sat the water on to boil, then laid out a small tablecloth. He set out the fruit and the mooncakes, and then he brought out the portrait. He gazed at it a moment, affectionately, then set it up against a pile of rocks near the tree.

He sniffed a little.

"You miss him… don't you?"

Iroh nodded. "Very much."

"Is that why you're doing this?"

"Yes… that is _one_ of my reasons."

That earned him a quizzical look.

The water was ready. Iroh put the tea leaves into the pot, then took the kettle from the fire and carefully poured the water into the pot. When the pot was full, he set the kettle aside and put on the pot's lid. "Now, the wait." He sat back. "Proper aging is an important thing in good tea."

Toph grinned. "_You're_ properly aged."

"Oh ho ho ho! Am I?"

"You're wise."

"Oh…" Iroh smiled. "I can't say I am wise. Experienced, yes." He lowered his voice. "But sometimes experience is a matter of hitting your head against something long enough."

Toph cracked a wry grin. "In that case, your nephew is very wise."

That got her a good dragon-belly laugh.

The night breeze had the scent of falling leaves. People had gathered in small groups, some with sweets and tea, some with a small fire like theirs.

Finally the tea was ready. Iroh set out three cups and poured them full. One he set before the portrait, one he gave to Toph, and the last he kept for himself. He brought out two of the incense sticks and lit them with thumb and forefinger—and a smile. He sat them in an incense holder near the portrait.

Toph breathed in, and smiled. "Cinnamon!"

Iroh smiled and nodded. "A favorite of his. The threads of the incense are said to provide a path back from the Spirit World, so our loved ones can join us."

Toph sat back and smiled. "Big surprise. It's all about him tonight."

"Not entirely."

"So what, then? Or who? You still haven't answered my question. Not really."

"Or, maybe I am just taking my time in answering it."

Toph frowned—then smiled. "That would be very like you. From what I know of you."

"Of course." Iroh grinned. "And proper aging applies to more than just tea—as you pointed out before."

She laughed.

"It is a wise thing for one to wait… and listen, sometimes."

"Sometimes. I usually just _do_ something, not just wait."

"Sometimes." Iroh waved to interrupt her, even though she wouldn't see it. "But that is not what I wanted to talk about."

"Then don't start conversations you can't finish," she said a little peevishly.

He laughed. "All right. I won't." He sipped his tea.

"I wanted to talk to you about family."

"Family? That's strange, I—wait." Toph turned anxious. "You don't mean you want to... adopt me, do you?"

"Well, I didn't mean to talk about adopting you, no."

Toph sat there a moment. "You spend more time talking about things you don't want to talk about…"

"Yes." He smiled. "I guess I do. Tonight, anyway."

"So what, then?"

He looked at the night sky. "Maybe family is not the right word." He considered. "I enjoyed talking with you a few months ago, on the road."

"When you made tea for me? Yeah. I did too."

"I was hoping you did." Iroh smiled. "I know you are close to the others, the Avatar and his followers. And my nephew. And I know you have a family, but they are a long way from here."

"Family. Huh. More like guardians—or guards."

"I am sure they care about you very much."

"Yeah," Toph grumbled. "Too much. Like I was made of glass. Too fragile to do anything on my own."

"And I would guess that even though the war is over, you won't be going home."

"Nope. No reason to." Toph crossed her legs, resting her right ankle by her left knee. "Here I can do what I want. There… I might as well sit in a cage."

Iroh made to say something—then stopped.

A few crickhoppers chirped.

Half to himself, Iroh said, "This is _not_ what I wanted to talk about, either."

Toph snorted. Then laughed. Then she rolled over on her side and laughed and laughed. Iroh laughed too, and shook his head at himself.

Toph wiped her eyes. "Okay. Heh. So why were you asking about that?"

"I think it's clear that you think of family as ties that bind."

"Heh heh. You could say that."

"I would. Especially after that." Iroh sipped his tea—then began again.

"I asked you to join me tonight for three reasons. One is that I like your company."

She smiled. "That's nice. I like yours, too."

"Another is that I wanted to share a bit about myself with you, tell you about myself a little. And the last is this."

He looked over at her. "I know that you can take care of yourself, _by_ yourself, without any trouble. But if you ever wanted to talk about something, or if you ever needed anything, I would like to help. And I do this not because you need it, but because I want to." He smiled. "And for no—other—reason."

She considered that. "Let me ask you something."

"Please."

"Are you lonely?"

"Sometimes, yes."

"You talk about Zuko a lot. I know you miss him."

"I do. I do, a lot."

"Seems to me like you're looking for someone to take care of."

Iroh was surprised. "You know, I never thought about that."

"Why? Do you feel guilty about something?"

"Do I feel guilty…" He thought of Lu Ten. "No. Regretful, maybe, but not guilty."

"I'm sorry. I had to ask."

"That is perfectly understandable. I hadn't thought about that at all."

Toph came closer. "When I first met you, you said that there is nothing wrong with letting people who love you help you. And then you said you didn't love me because you had just met me."

Iroh chuckled. "Something like that."

"I think… I wouldn't mind if you took care of me, too."

Iroh smiled warmly. "I—would—be—happy to."

They shared more tea and started in on the mooncakes, and enjoyed the moon rising in the sky. And on high, Yue watched… and beamed.

And then she saw someone else. She smiled, and beckoned.

A figure in pale red faded into existence, and came to her. She motioned to the scene below.

The young man looked…

And smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **The Viewing of the Moon does exist in our world, in China, and in other parts of the Orient, too, I think. We had mooncakes in September when we visited Hong Kong one year. It made sense to me to bring it into Avatar, especially given Yue's involvement.

I wanted to trim this story... someplace. It just felt like it was running long. The more I looked at things, though, the more I felt I was looking at just normal, natural conversation between Iroh and Toph. Conversations certainly happen like that; they ramble. And some people (including me) take a while to get around to the point they want to make. XD

Hope you liked it, in any case. Thanks again for reading.


	5. Rainy Day Memories

Okay, here's something I really ought to do more of... a little Kataang fluff.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Rainy Day Memories<strong>_

Rain.

It was kind of expected. It had been cloudy all day in Ba Sing Se, gloomy, dark... but maybe that was just Katara's perspective. Aang was away, again; they had requested the Avatar, and _just_ the Avatar—no one else. The days were long and dark as is. Katara went out on the front step to watch the rain. At least it was something to do.

People were running for cover, dodging the rain. Umbrellas popped out like colorful flowers, here and there. A few carts went by with real wet ostrich horses—_they_ didn't smell that great right now.

A pair of Earthbender troops went by that were using their heads; they were using thin slabs of earth as umbrellas. That made sense.

That caught Katara's eye. She had bent the rain before... why not now?

A wave of her hands brought a thick snake of water out of the air. She made a circle and made it spin... then stopped that and made a dome. She laughed. She had her own water umbrella.

She brought it back into a circle, then made a square. That was tougher—hard angles were hard to hold with water. She tried for a triangle... and it fell apart.

She was a little disappointed. Then she shrugged. _No matter. There's more water where that came from._

Again she wrested rain from the air, and she reformed the circle... then the square, and then... nope, not that time either. She kept at it, and eventually... well, the triangle had rounded corners, but it was still a recognizable, three-sided... thing. She laughed, and let it fall.

For the heck of it, she tried making a house. _That_ was harder. She just about had the roof on when Sokka came from inside the house. "Katara?" he asked quietly?

The roof fell in on the water-house—but the rest of it stayed in mid-air. "Sokka!"

"Hey, I tried. I knew you were working on something." Sokka thumbed over his shoulder. "Toph and I wanted to try out that new restaurant for lunch. Wanna come along?"

"Yu Wei's?"

He nodded. "That's the one."

"That sounds great." She let the water-house fall, then looked at herself. "I suppose I'm presentable."

"Yeah, I think you'll do."

Katara gave him a playful bat.

"Ow." He grinned sheepishly. "Say, what _were_ you working on there?"

"Oh, just seeing what shapes I could make the water into."

"Hmm... have you tried making pictures? Of people?"

"Not yet." And that got Katara thinking.

o o o

The next day it rained, too. Katara picked up where she left off on the house... and added gables and columns. The moves came back far easier than she expected.

She then went to work on faces. Sokka's first, of course, she'd only seen that mug of his since the day she was born... and that actually was fairly easy. Her _mind_ knew where the water should go to make the picture; she didn't have to consciously guide it, really. It was interesting.

She let that drop. Sokka's face hit the ground and splashed. Katara giggled; she kind of liked that idea.

Toph, next... although the way Katara "drew" her, she looked more like her wanted poster than her real life image—hair at jagged angles, pointy triangular teeth... Katara grinned. _And Toph can't_ see _it either_.

And then... the jagged hair gave way to a smooth head with an arrow, the pointy teeth to a wide, happy grin, open, smiling eyes...

Katara sighed. That one just sort of... happened... again, the mind telling the water where to go rather than her directing it.

She just looked at it. Especially the eyes. How many days had it been? She sighed again and closed her eyes. _Too many._ That's _how many._

She breathed in... straightened, and looked at the water-Aang again.

It winked.

_Huh?_

Two arms with arrows on them hugged her around her middle. She gasped, turned... and there was the real thing.

With a sheepish grin. "Hi, Katara."

The water-Aang fell and splashed all over the ground... but that didn't seem to matter too much.


	6. Kuzon Would Be Proud

_**Kuzon Would Be Proud**_

Two shadowy figures flitted out of the Fire Palace. The darkness cloaked them as they took to the rooftops. One was tall and thin, and he was surefooted despite the awkward footing. The other was shorter but just as slender... and to him, the footing didn't seem to matter as much.

They both moved lightly, looking around—not like thieves casing a joint, just... with curiosity. Then they stopped. The red mask spied a fruit stand. The vendor was asleep. The red looked over at his partner, who saw it, then shrugged.

The pair made their way onto the roof of the fruit stand. The red mask shimmied down one of the poles, picked up one of the melons, then lofted it up to the blue mask, who caught it, surprised. Then the red brought out a small bag of coins...

The coins clinked.

"Huh—wha...?"

And the vendor woke up.

"Hey... you! Stop! _Thief!_"

The blue mask brought a hand to his forehead.

The red one sprang from the pole, ran around the corner to make a quick getaway—and ran into another cart.

_**CRASH.**_

"_My cabbages!_"

The red mask made apologetic gestures, but he kept on going. He turned another corner, shimmied up another drainpipe, and ducked out of sight.

o o o

Later on, in another part of town, the pair found something terrible. Down below them in a dark street, an Earth Kingdom couple with a baby was recoiling in fear from a gang of thugs, looking to rob them... or worse.

The two ran across the rooftop they were on and jumped, landing in between the thugs and their prey.

The leader of the thugs chuckled. "Why, look, boys... two little play-pretties come to play with us." The gang laughed and brandished clubs and knives.

In answer, the taller shadow brought out a pair of swords with a whirl, while the other brought his staff from behind his back.

An eager thug rushed the blue with a club. The blue danced around him and spun him to his partner, who tripped him, spun him again, and sent him into a nearby stand filled with pots and pans.

Two more came at them. The red and the blue set them off-balance, found walls to their liking, and introduced them. There was a loud _thud_ of flesh on wood.

The leader didn't like this. "Spread out!"

The gang complied, encircling the red and the blue. The blue whirled his swords again, a gleam in his eye. The red went back to back with the blue, and waited.

A few moments of mayhem later, a pile of groaning, bruised bodies lay at the feet of the masked men. The couple was grateful. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" said the man.

"How can we ever repay you?" asked the woman.

There was another noise down the street. The two shadows looked at each other—and vanished.

A well-fed magistrate came around the corner and saw the couple and the baby, then the pile of thugs. "Well, well... picking on innocent travelers, eh?" He stuck his thumbs in his belt. "Good thing _I_ came along!"

o o o

Later on, the two masks were picking their way through the shadows when they came across a tea shop. Four customers were seated outside, pompously ordering the staff about. The pair were going away when the red mask saw four large cakes, each piled high with fruit and fluff. He motioned to the blue mask and stopped. Puzzled, the blue one did too.

The red one took two steps back, paused, then twirled as he moved forward. He brought his arm up, back, and under the cakes. The cakes flew into the air...

...and landed on the four patrons.

_Splat splat splat __**splat**__._

The resulting ruckus made the red mask giggle as the pomposity increased. "_Who did that?_" "Where did those _cakes_ come from?" "How am I going to get this out?" "You—fetch the manager!"

As they went away, the blue one shook his head—and chuckled.

Back at the Fire Palace as the moon began to set, the two of them were atop the tallest roof, toasting their outing with... something they had found. The red one took a swig—then went into a coughing fit. The blue mask pounded him on the back. It seemed to help.

o o o

At the end of the night, Zuko and Aang were walking through the halls of the Fire Palace.

"You see, Zuko? Fun. Not a foreign concept."

Zuko's eye flicked over to Aang. "I never said it was." He smiled.

"I know, I know. But seriously. You gotta get out more often. Breathe the air, see the sights, get out there with the people..."

"Throw cakes at them..."

"Okay, I _did_ go a little overboard there. But you still have to admit it was—"

Mai was at the end of the hall... tapping her foot.

"—fun."

Mai looked them over, taking in their black outfits... then lingering on the masks in their hands.

"Oh, boy."

"May I speak with you, Fire Lord Zuko?" said Mai. "You may go, Avatar. This doesn't concern _you_."

Aang felt stuck. He looked at Zuko. "I... guess I'd better be going."

Zuko nodded. Aang left quietly.

After he left, Mai came over—then lifted Zuko's chin and smiled slightly.

"And you didn't invite me along?"

Zuko grinned quickly—and a little uneasily.


	7. Heart in the Clouds

_**Heart in the Clouds**_

It had been a few months since Katara and Aang had kissed at Ba Sing Se—a few real good months, Aang felt. Sunsets fading into starry night skies... lots of quiet talk—sometimes just a moment snatched here or there, but still invaluable... some hiding from Sokka, but even that was a little fun. Aang felt Sokka would find out eventually. He didn't know how Sokka _couldn't_ when he felt he all but _glowed_ with his feelings for Katara. He felt... consummated. Complete. Like when he finally had mastered the Avatar State after his battle with Ozai, only far, far more so.

Sokka might argue that _anybody_ could fall in love. Aang would argue right back that _anybody_ could become the Avatar... it just happened to be him right now. Well, that wasn't _entirely_ true, but he wasn't going to debate the fine points of it right now. He was in love. It didn't matter.

He wanted to take the next step.

A betrothal necklace came to mind at first, but... that was _way_ too far down the line. He _felt_ that way about Katara, but he was just barely a teenager himself, and he knew it. It was way too soon.

But a bracelet, on the other hand... something from _him_, for _her_... now, _that_ was another matter. That fit.

Making the bracelet took a while. It took the right piece of rock, cut, carved, and buffed the right way, bound with the right kind and color of leather before he was finally satisfied. (He cheated a little on the cutting and carving—he Earthbent the stone the way he wanted. But even that took time; he had to learn how to bend the stone _delicately_.)

Then he had to give it to her.

Given how long it took to get the idea across to Katara that he loved her, he shouldn't have been surprised at what happened next.

Aang tried just choosing a moment and giving it to her.

"Say, Katara? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, Aang. What's up?"

Well... we've been together for a while now, and—"

"_Aang!_"

Sokka came running up.

"I'm glad I found you, buddy. They just started the first rounds of Earth Rumble Seven! You've gotta come!" And he dragged Aang off without another word—leaving Katara standing there, wondering.

Later on, in the halls of the Earth Palace, Aang tried again.

"Katara, about that thing I wanted to talk to you about earlier..."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Ah! Young Avatar!" A Palace official shuffled up. "I am glad to see you. We have a problem with the Palace plumbing."

An Airbender eyebrow went up. "So why can't your Earthbenders take care of it?"

"Normally they could! But unfortunately, this involves the main water intake for the Palace, and the water pressure is too great. And so we felt, since you can bend both Earth and Water..." The official looked at Aang hopefully.

"Very well..." Aang said. "Show me the leak, I'll be happy to help..." Though his tone said anything but.

"I'll come too!" said Katara. "Maybe I can help with the water."

The official bowed. "Your help is also most appreciated, young mistress. This way, please."

They eventually fixed the problems with the Palace's plumbing. But after more than an hour of dealing with water, earth, mud, and a lot of other things, the only thing Aang was ready to present was _not_ something fit for public consumption.

o o o

Aang kept trying, and things kept getting in the way. One day his path took him by the Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop, and he told Iroh all his troubles.

Iroh smiled. "I think you need to change the circumstances of your environment."

Aang blinked. "Huh?"

"I think you need to make the time, and go someplace where no one can disturb you. Or, you could just hand her the bracelet." Iroh leaned back. "But it seems to me you want to tell her something first."

Aang nodded. "I do. I want to tell her _why_. I know I could just _hand_ it to her, but... I want to tell her how I feel."

"Then, you need to make the time. And find a place that is special to the both of you."

After a moment's thought, Aang smiled. "I know the place."

o o o

That place was certainly where no one could bother them. With Appa's help, Katara and Aang rode high, high up, to just above the clouds.

Seated next to Aang on Appa's head, Katara looked down and giggled. "I don't think anybody will bother us up here!"

Aang laughed. "I hope not."

"So what did you want to tell me?"

Aang screwed up his courage one more time. He looked Katara in the eye... and marveled at how blue her eyes were. Then he remembered what he was doing, and gathered himself.

"We've been together for a few months now, and I wanted to give you something. Something from me. It took me a while to think about what to give you—"

Then they were buried in clouds.

"Appa!" Aang grabbed the reins and pulled back. Appa brought them back above the clouds again.

Aang exhaled. "Okay. So as I was saying... I wanted to give you something, but it took me a while to figure out what." He grinned sheepishly. "I mean... I didn't want to seem to forward or anything—"

Then clouds buried them again.

"_**Appa!**_"

He reached for the reins again—but then the clouds parted. He turned. Katara, arms wide, hands out, was keeping the clouds at bay. She smiled warmly. "Go ahead, Aang."

That she would do that for him, now… after everything that had happened… it all melted away inside him. The anger, the anxiety, what to say, how to say it... all of it. He brought out the bracelet. "I wanted to give you this."

Katara's eyes lit up, and her mouth made an O. She reached for the bracelet...

And the clouds buried them again.

"_Oh!_"

"Katara! What is it? Are you okay?" Now _he_ brought out his arms and held the clouds back, and there she was... looking at the bracelet: a simple tan stone, buffed to a shine, etched with the three circular whorls of the Air Nomads, fastened to a band of soft, brown leather.

"Aang... it's beautiful. Thank you..."

She tied it around her left wrist and looked at it—then grinned and hugged him.

The clouds poured in again.

A few moments passed.

Aang cleared his throat. "I... guess we can't stay in here, can we?"

Katara laughed. "No. Sokka'll wonder where we've gone, eventually.

"Okay. Good point."

At Aang's gentle guiding, Appa soared back out of the clouds... then turned for home.

o o o

After they landed and Katara headed back to the Gaang's house, Aang turned to Appa. "We need to talk."

Appa's response was a low, rumbled... something.


	8. Soft Light

I suppose it's appropriate I bring this story out at the same time I bring out "See Voyage" in my Book 4 story, given the topic and people involved. 8D

I was looking at a building downtown in the early morning, and I've always enjoyed the light at dawn, or early morning. There's just something to it.

It got me to thinking that it was something Toph couldn't see—but Sokka could. And so...

* * *

><p><em><strong>Soft Light<strong>_

Sokka came into the front room of the Gaang's house in Ba Sing Se. He yawned... and stretched. He heard his joints pop as he worked out the kinks. He scratched a little. Then he looked out the front window... and smiled.

"You're up early."

Hearing the voice, Sokka whirled around, scrambling to get his hair somewhat presentable—then he stopped. And grinned. With Toph, appearances really _didn't_ matter. "Hey, Toph."

"Hey." Toph walked over. Her own hair wasn't in its usual well-tucked-into-place 'do, either—it was a wild peacock fan, all over the place. "Whatcha doing up?"

Sokka shrugged. "Felt like getting up. I wanted to look outside."

"Why? There's nothing going on."

"I know. The light's special in the morning, sometimes."

"What do you mean? Light's light." Toph shrugged. "As far as _I_ know, anyway."

"Not always. In the morning it's softer, somehow. It plays over things different."

"Plays over things different. Sokka—have you been licking the walls again?"

"Hey! I only did that once. Had a bad taste in my mouth for a week. And—hey."

Toph snickered.

"All right, come over here by the window. I'll tell you what _I_ see." Toph came over. "You know that house across the street?"

"Sure, I know what it looks like!" she answered perkily.

"Well, with the way the light—ha, ha."

Toph smirked.

"I mean, ordinarily, it'd be all hard edges and straight lines, right?"

"Okay..."

"Well, in _this_ light, I see that, but they're a little...blurry. Softer."

"That doesn't help much."

"I know. It's kind of like a... feeling." Toph came over a little closer. "I know you can't see—I wish you could—but the light's a little yellow, and it changes the look somehow. Gives it a... fresh feeling, like it's new."

Toph laid her head on Sokka's upper arm.

"It's like the world is... clean. Ready to start again." Sokka shrugged a little. "Hopeful."

"That's an awful lot for just... light."

"Yeah, I know. I guess it's... just the way the light makes me feel."

Sokka started to feel warm where Toph's head was against his arm. Unconsciously, his arm found its way around Toph's shoulders.

A moment later, hers found its way around his waist.

They stood there in the quiet for a while.

Then Toph inhaled. "Wellp..." she said, popping the "p". She broke away. "I think I'll go back to bed and get some more sleep. Catch you later, Snoozles." She punched him in the upper arm. "Enjoy your light!"

Sokka rubbed his arm as she walked away. "Yeah... I will." After a moment, he went back to looking out the window... and a smile slowly returned to his face.

And just as Toph turned the corner to her own room, there was a small smile on her face as well.


	9. HarOld Spice

So do you remember that one commercial for a certain deodorant? XD

* * *

><p><em><strong><span>HarOld Spice<span>**_

Haru is standing in front of a shower in just a towel. And mustache.

"Hello, ladies."

"Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man. Now _back to me_."

"Sadly... he isn't me. But if he stopped using lady-scented bodywash and switched to Old Spice he could smell like he's me."

The shower slides out to reveal a Fire Nation ship. An Earth Kingdom-green pullover knotted at the wrists falls and comes to rest over Haru's shoulders.

"Look down. Back up. Where are you? You're on a _boat_-with the man your man could smell like."

Zuko's crew looks at him oddly. One of them strikes a pose and strokes an imaginary mustache.

"What's in your hand? Back at me. _I_ have it. It's an oyster—with two tickets to that thing you love."

Meng sneaks by and slips a bag into the oyster, grins, then leaves. White crystals fall out of the oyster.

"Look again. The tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and _not a lady_."

The ship scene slides away.

"I'm on a horse."

The ostrich horse looks back at him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **By the way, I had thought about putting Sokka in the role here and calling it Sokka Spice, then I thought about Jet... but when Chaka suggested Haru, it just fit into place.

And of course, Old Spice is the property of… well, Old Spice. XD


	10. Dance Like Nobody's Watching

_**Dance Like Nobody's Watching**__**...**_

The empty halls and rubble-filled rooms of the Western Air Temple weren't spooky... not in the daylight. They were sad.

Katara walked through them as the Gaang took a break from making their plans, and as she saw the murals on the walls, the Airbender statues here and there, she didn't feel scared.

She felt sad.

And the feeling grew as she walked.

She knew that female Airbenders had lived here... some her own age, years and years ago. Lives just beginning, just... ended. A history, a heritage... lost. Eliminated.

Gone.

At the same time... there were whispers of their lives, good ones. The Airbenders were cunning architects and planners. Water from nearby streams up above trickled down into fountains and pools. And light... light came in from unexpected places. Sometimes it was reflected from pools of water... sometimes it came in directly, from clever shafts cut into the rock.

So that while the Airbenders themselves were undoubtedly gone, somehow... they weren't. Even despite the worst that had been done to them. Their temple lived.

In that uplifted mood, Katara found the great Pai Sho board. The largest in the world, it was said.

The high dome of the place made it a cathedral of light and air.

Katara threw her arms wide and danced, reveling in the open space. It felt good after the closeness of the stone.

Dancing...

She stopped.

That night...

Her muscles remembered the moves. Her mind remembered the music. The Flameos. She snorted. But they were good. Better than anything she'd heard in the Earth Kingdom, certainly.

She also remembered how _he_ was. He wasn't the boy in the iceberg then at _all_. He was... so...

_In his element_, for lack of a better way to put it. So self-possessed. He knew how to dance. And felt no qualms at all at getting out there and doing it.

Especially with that On Ji girl...

Katara frowned. Then she looked up and laughed. Was she actually about to _growl?_

That simple dance from Ba Sing Se that seemed to set the whole room dancing bit by bit...

Here, now, her arms moved, circling, slowly picking up the rhythm.

And he came to her... and asked _her_ to join him. Not On Ji. Her.

No hesitation. No awkwardness. Just "Take my hand."

And she did.

He told her his plan.

Just simple circles at first, touching at the wrists...

"Don't worry about them. It's just you... and me right now." And that look.

She began to circle. Alone. Arm out, palm up.

Whirls... high round kicks... darting in so close to him, almost nose to nose... then a quiet smile.

She remembered. She moved in time in the silence, just as she did then.

Someone in the shadows noticed.

Then handstands... whirls... she threw herself into the air and spun almost horizontally, her back to the floor.

Another handstand... one last flourish, and—

She almost threw herself into where Aang's arms had been, would have been, and came to a screeching halt. She wasn't going to throw herself into the floor now, surely!

She realized she was alone. And not in the Fire Nation, not at that dance, not that night, but here... now... the Western Air Temple...

And more than a little confused.

She shook her head, and smiled at herself. _I'm just being silly, that's all. It was fun, but..._

She headed back to the others.

Toph met up with her before she reached the camp, though. "Soooo... you enjoy your little dance?"

"_What?_ I was—it was just—it was nothing at all! I just saw the open space, and... I wanted to dance. Is that all right with you?"

"Oh, that's just fine with _me_, Sugar Queen. But aren't you going to tell Twinkletoes about it?"

"Why would I?" Katara asked, getting a little more self-possessed. "It was just a dance."

Just before they reached the camp, Toph said something, very softly...

"I can tell you're ly-ing..."


	11. Pedestals

_**Pedestals**_

Katara was out for a walk when she heard some _thuds_ and crumbles—classic Earthbending sounds. She was curious and headed toward them—but unlike a lot of places in Ba Sing Se, there was no clear path here, just lots of bushes. That didn't deter her, of course. She left the path and made her way through.

In the middle of the bushes, she came to a stone fence, about chest-high. On the other side in a large park was Aang, practicing his Earthbending. He stomped his foot and brought rocks up from the earth, then with a roundhouse kick he sent them flying. His hands sent currents through the dirt, causing sinkholes or raising hillocks, at his whim.

He was so focused, so intense...

Katara settled in to watch.

Watching him now was so different from before; so many things had changed. Before, he barely knew how to Earthbend, let alone how to control it. Now, he Earthbent with authority, stomping the earth with intent, and it showed in his face that he knew _exactly_ what he was doing. The earth was his.

Katara propped her head up on the fence with an elbow and smiled. _He certainly isn't the boy in the iceberg anymore_.

Aang _rrrrripped_ the earth asunder and brought up a fountain of water from below. He then sent it out in a Kraken-like tentacle as a massive water whip.

Katara's eyes widened. _Wow. I'm going to have to ask him to do that for _me_ the next time _I_ need it._

After working a bit with the water, Aang moved on to bending earth _and_ water at the same time, holding the water in a wide circle above his head while sending out currents of earth.

Katara went back to propping her head up on the fence. _He really_ is _the Avatar_.

A while ago he was just a boy, and now...

At some point her eyes went from watching him and his bending to watching just him. The broadening shoulders... the fine tone of his muscles as he went through his paces...

Katara smiled dreamily. _And in a few years..._

_My boyfriend. The Avatar. And he's all... mine._

She sighed happily.

Aang stopped. With the water still in a circle over his head, he sent an Earth current right at Katara's hiding place—and thrust her up on a column of rock.

"_Whoa!_" Katara swayed, trying to keep her balance.

Aang then saw who he had just elevated. The ring of water splashed down. He got a little red in the face.

Katara regained her balance, then looked up. At Aang. Who was looking back at her, just as surprised. She felt more than a little sheepish. She waved weakly at him. "Uh, hi, Aang."

So did Aang. He waved back. Just as weakly. "Uh... hi, Katara. I, um, I'm sorry about that; I just heard a noise, and—"

"No no, that's okay, I understand—you heard a noise and didn't know what it was, so..."

"Still, if I had known it was you, I wouldn't have..."

"Yeah, I know... and I didn't let you know it was me, either."

"Yeah."

Katara swayed a little. "Well, I... guess I'll let you get back to what you're doing."

"Yeah, I guess... I'd better."

"Nice moves, by the way."

Aang went even more red. "Thanks."

"Um... Aang?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you let me down, please?"

"Oh! Sure, Katara! Hang on." Aang gently lowered the column of rock even with ground level.

Katara waved and walked off. "Thanks! See you back at the house!"

"Yeah! See ya!"

Katara made her way through the bushes back to the path. Aang got back to Earthbending and Waterbending and was just about to add in a little Fire when he thought, _Nice... moves?_

_Then what was she...?_

_And where was...?_

Then it hit him.

Earth and water dropped again, and he looked to where he had raised the rock column.

He turned a little red again... and then, after a while, he smiled. "Wow."

He went back to bending again, but this time with a little more panache and crispness in his moves... a dreamy smile on his face poking out now and then.

Walking away, Katara had the same kind of look.


	12. Two Pieces of Metal

This next one I meant to write "off-the-cuff", fairly quickly, but when I realized I wanted to be a lot more serious about it, it kinda just sat there. For months.

But here it is. XD Please tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Two Pieces of Metal<strong>_

Sokka _glared_ across the fire at Suki. And Katara. And Toph, and Aang, and Zuko. He snatched up his sword, put his arm through the carry string and slung the sword into place along his back, and left.

No one said a word in his direction. He couldn't tell if they even _looked_. They kept right on talking—he heard that much.

He left the firelight behind and walked deeper into the Western Air Temple, in the dark. He couldn't see much, but he was so mad it didn't matter. _Walk right off the edge and they wouldn't notice_, he grumbled to himself. _**Or**_ _care_.

Of course, snapping at Suki probably wasn't the best idea. But when _she_ put in her opinion about bending—positive, of course—and even Aang didn't catch it when he wanted to talk about something else, _anything_ else... but _nooooooo_, that jerkbender Zuko just had to point out how there was a flow to fire just as there is with water, and Aang said he had to agree, since he now could do both, and Katara chimed in with her thoughts, expert Waterbender that she was, and Toph—

AND **_TOPH!_**

Of all people he thought would know him best, after Katara... and yet Toph just didn't sense...

He kicked a rock. Hard.

He reached a part of the Temple lit by starlight and moonlight... and not much of either. That was fine by him. Another time, the artist side of him might have appreciated the interplay of light and shadow, but now, with his inside as dark as it was outside...

Eventually he found a stone bench and sat down... dejected.

And sat there.

Alone.

A few night sounds worked their way in, creakers and whatnot, but... even they echoed in here.

He hung his head.

"I know I'm not a bender."

He saw a rock, and picked it up.

"Toph could knock this through a wall... but me..."

He tossed it at the far wall... and it felt short. He laughed once. Bitterly.

"Can't even do that."

He felt the weight on his back, and drew his boomerang. There was a little bit of light where he was sitting. His boomerang shined at him dimly. He could see his face. Exactly what he did—and did not—want to see.

"So I can throw a boomerang. Who cares?"

He tossed it onto the floor.

"It isn't bending."

Ka-_ting! ting! ting... ting..._

In the middle of the conversation by the fire, the vibration zoomed in on Toph. Her head came up. She sensed around, marking who was around the campfire and nearby.

And who wasn't.

"Guys?" She got up. "I'll be right back." And left.

Aang turned. "Sure, Toph." He went back to the conversation.

Back at the dimly lit cave, there was still a weight on Sokka's back; easy enough to remember what it was.

He drew his sword.

Only the edges of the dark metal reflected any light... but it was something he'd made, something he'd earned...

He darkened. _Something Toph could bend in two if she put her mind to it_, he thought.

Or Katara. She didn't need a blade to cut—just water. Azula found out that much.

"Doesn't matter what fancy tricks I can do with it. Katara can do better." He tossed the sword.

"You're gonna dull it if you do that."

Sokka lunged for the sword, fumbled with it, grabbed it, and swung it around toward the speaker. With the point toward himself. He saw that, reversed it.

And saw Toph.

He lowered the blade.

"Oh. Hi, Toph."

"Yeah, hi. What are you _doing_ here?"

"What am I doing here? What's it to _you?_"

Toph shrugged. "Oh, I dunno, I was just sitting by the fire, minding my own business, when I felt your boomerang hit the floor, and I just wondered—"

"Wow." Sokka's eyes widened. "You felt that?"

"Sure." Toph cracked a wry grin. "You'd be surprised what I can feel with these." She flexed her toes.

Which was just one more reminder...

The light went out of Sokka's eyes, and he deflated. "Yeah. I would." He sank back down on his bench.

"So what happened to your boomerang?"

Sokka motioned with his head. "It's over there."

"Why don't you pick it up?"

He slumped. "Would it matter?"

Her head jerked back. "_What?_ What do you mean, 'Would it matter?' It's _yours_, rockbrain."

"Yeah... so what."

Toph grew concerned. "What's wrong with you?"

"Yeah... that's the point, isn't it?"

"_What?_"

Sokka shrugged, hands up. "I can't _bend_, Toph!"

Toph folded her arms. "Well, _that's_ news."

"I'm serious, Toph. I mean, I don't know how many times over the past few months that that's been brought home to me. I'm just the guy with the boomerang. Whoopie."

"And the sword."

"Okay, and the sword. So what? I still can't bend! You guys can." He slumped down again. "And when you guys talk about it so much... I get reminded of that. All over again."

"Sokka... okay. That's just not your skill."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"It's not like you don't have skills. You're not just hanging around."

Sokka lifted his sword. "You mean this?"

"Yeah. Among other things."

"Toph, I just started this. It's going to be years before I get any good."

"You gave Piandao a run for his money."

"Only because he let me."

Toph exhaled, exasperated.

A few creakers chirped.

"All right." Toph frowned at him. "You know what really makes me mad?"

"What?"

"I can't see."

That brought Sokka's head up. "Whaddaya mean, you can't see? You just got done talking about your feet—"

"Sokka, I can't see! Can I see the color of your eyes? No. Can I see what your face looks like? No. Can I see what you guys can see? No! Why? Because I—can't—see!"

"Well, it... you're... that... "

Sokka ground to a halt.

More creakers chirped.

Toph's voice softened. "And when you guys talk about the colors you see... the patterns that catch your eye... how great someone looks or how ugly something is... I'm left out. I can only... guess."

Sokka was stunned.

"So you're..."

"Yeah."

"But you can see what others can't... feel what others can't..."

"I know. But I still feel left out. Too. And you can see what others can't too... aren't you the Plan Guy or something?"

"Yeah, but..."

He put his sword down, and went over and hugged her. She hugged back. "Toph, I'm... I'm sorry. I guess I thought that because you can see with your Earthbending, it took care of a lot of things, but... I didn't know. I didn't think about it."

She gave him another little hug—then gave him a light cuff to the belly. "Welcome to my world, rockbrain."

"Okay." He smiled. "I promise I'll try to 'see' things for you in the future."

"Deal. Now let's get back to the others. I'm cold."

"Yeah... let me get my things."

His sword was closest, so he picked that up... and looked at it. And pondered.

"You know... there _is_ a certain flow I feel when I'm wielding this... when I go through the moves that Piandao taught me."

He slid the sword into the scabbard on his back, enjoying the feel of it there. Then he gathered his boomerang. He looked at Toph. "Did I ever tell you there's a certain discipline you have to have with this thing?"

Toph closed her eyes, shook her head, and smiled. "I've created a monster."

"No, really, it's more than just throwing it. You have to judge where your target is, how you want to hit it..."

And somewhere between the cave and the camp, Sokka gave Toph another quick hug—which she didn't mind at all.


	13. Hair's Breadth

And now for something completely different...

(I know I keep setting a lot of these stories in Ba Sing Se. I promise I'll branch out eventually, but... it's just such a good place to base from, you know?)

* * *

><p><em><strong>Hair's Breadth<strong>_

It was early morning at the Gaang's house in Ba Sing Se.

Aang went through his belongings again, somewhat frantic. Then he went over by the mirror and looked around the counter, gently pawing through things. Nothing. "I can't... it's gotta be... can't remember where I..."

Katara walked up. "What's wrong, Aang?"

"My razor. I can't find it. I thought I left it somewhere..."

She looked at him, concerned. "I'm sure we can go to the store and get another one..."

He looked at her. "Yeah, but I like the one I've got. Er, had. I like the way it shaves. And I thought I left it

—"

"Looking for... this?" Light flashed off the edge of the razor in Sokka's hand.

"Sokka! You found it!" Aang took it. "Where was it?"

"I hid it." Sokka laughed.

Aang was speechless. Katara frowned. "That wasn't nice, Sokka."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Sokka walked away laughing. "You should've seen the look on your face..."

Katara's frown deepened into a scowl—but after a few moments, it melted into a devious smile.

o o o

A few mornings later, Sokka woke up in bed. He got up, stretched, and went out front to look on the new day. Aang was already there. He turned to greet Sokka—and his eyes bugged out. "Uh... good morning, Sokka."

" 'Morning." Sokka looked out the window. "Anything going on?"

Aang's eyes stayed focused on Sokka's head. "Uh, not with me, no. How are you?"

"Feeling okay, I guess." He scratched a little. "Same old, same old, pretty much."

"Really? That's... really a new look for you."

"New look? Whaddaya mean, new loo—" Then Sokka touched his head.

And didn't feel any hair.

His eyes widened. He ran to the mirror. Where there had been a shock of black hair, there was now a shaved-smooth light brown bald scalp—and a powder-blue Airbender arrow.

"**_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!_**"

Sokka wheeled on Aang. "_You!_ You did this!"

"No, no, I didn't do it." Aang started to giggle. "But I like the look."

"Then who—" He turned. "_Katara_." Sokka ground her name to bits with his teeth.

Laughter pealed out of Katara's room, and she came out. "So, Sokka, how's it feel?"

"Katara! You shaved off my wolf's-tail!"

"No, I didn't, silly! Take it off!"

"Take it off? But you—" Sokka put his hand to his head again and felt something skin-ish—but it was loose. He grabbed and pulled, and off came an Airbender-style scalp-piece. Back went the hand... and it found hair. He exhaled in relief.

Katara laughed. "You should've seen the look on your face!"

o o o

The next morning, Katara stirred in her sleep. Her hand brushed her face. And she felt hair.

Her eyes snapped open. She touched her face again—then she bolted out of bed, running to the mirror.

Her reflection looked back at her—with a full beard.

"_**Sokkaaaaaaaaaa!**_"


	14. Viewing of the Moon

In Chapter 15 of my Book 4 piece, Second Genesis, I referred to a piece I had written before involving Sokka and the moon and the art that had inspired it. The piece I wrote is below-and I'm still figuring out how to transfer a link into here, so as soon as I can do _that_, I'll put the link here to Izzy's artwork here, too. XD

Hope you like the story.

* * *

><p><em><strong><span>Viewing of the Moon<span>**_

Beautiful night. Quiet.

Midnight blue sea, midnight blue sky, white ice, bright stars. And the moon reigning over all.

She saw him, down there. Always had. Wherever he was, however he was. Whoever he was with...

It did hurt, at first. Suki... Toph... She could always see him, wanted to reach out to him, speak to him, touch him... and couldn't. But seeing him, always seeing him, somehow... helped.

Time passed.

His wife. She giggled when she saw his wife's reaction to living in the snow; it made her wonder what people thought when they saw the moon wiggle. His children... growing tall and strong. Then his grandchildren.

But all that time, he came out to see her. Every clear night.

He aged, grew gray, needed a cane to help him along. It didn't matter. He still came. She was still the same as that final night... but she didn't think it mattered to him, either. And someday...

He saw her up there. Sea and sky separated them, like always. Like that first night. The tears had stopped a long time ago... the ones inside after a while.

He wondered what she thought of it all. The Serpent's Pass... that time in the Fire Nation... getting married, having kids... grandkids... with someone else. So little time together, and yet...

And now here he was, a patriarch. The chief of the Southern Water Tribe. So many years gone by. So much time.

Yet she was still there. Always was, always would be. Always waiting for him. He liked to think so. It wasn't easy to reconcile. He loved his wife, dearly. Thankfully she understood, or at least didn't say much.

An hour went by. They spent the time in each other's company, separated, yet seeing. Nothing had to be said. It simply was.

"Grampa!"

His oldest granddaughter. Ten winters old.

"Grampa! Time to come in!"

"I know, I know. I'm coming."

"Grampa... whatcha lookin' at?

"The moon. Beautiful tonight, isn't she?"

"Yeah, if you say so."

Sokka grinned. "Did I ever tell you how I once kissed the Moon Spirit?"

That got him a green-eyed look. "Oh, sure, Grampa. Just like you kissed that real famous Earthbender once. Lots of earth to bend around here, uh-huh!"

He grinned. _Chip off the old block_. "I did. Really. And there is lots of earth. You just have to know where to look."

"_Sure_, Grampa." They went in.

And the moon, for her part, just beamed.

* * *

><p>My thanks once again to Izzy for the inspiration, TokkaDoggGirl for the idea to Toph-en it up some, and to Invaderk. Thanks, guys. 3<p> 


	15. Impact Psychology

In this next one, I got to wondering juuuuuust what Toph was capable of if she didn't have to hold back-and especially if she were angry about something. Well...

* * *

><p><em><strong>Impact Psychology<strong>_

Toph slipped out of the Gaang's house unnoticed.

More to the point, she marched out the front door, and somehow none of the Gaang noticed her.

She marched down the street, out of the inner ring, down through the lower rings, and outside the city wall. Occasionally someone would look at her—then quickly return to what they were doing. Her set-in-stone frown gave lots of warning.

Eventually she reached an open field; a few hills, a tree or two, but otherwise no farms, no animals, no buildings, and no people. Nothing but waving gold and green grasses.

And then her face flashed to outright anger.

She stomped her left foot. With two hands, she dug into the air and lifted—and a column of stone erupted up from the earth. She advanced on the column and punched into it, and punched, and punched, and punched, and punched. Gray and brown rocks flew in spatters from the other side as she punched her way through the base of the column. Soon she was through, and she walked on. The tower of rock shuddered, crumbled, and toppled, falling with a rumbling, bone-tingling crunch. It fell unnoticed.

Toph leapt high and brought both feet down on the earth. At her will it swallowed her, leaving only a small hole. From below, a wave of dirt and rocks arose, and then surged out in an earthen tsunami. It broke on one of the hills and smashed it flat.

A dark chasm yawned open. In the depths, Toph plunged both of her hands into the wall, grabbed hold, and pulled. "_Uhhhhhhhhh!_" An iceberg of earth ripped free, and she hurled it into the air. The glob of brown and green lifted up, arced, and came down.

_Krraaaaaaammmm!_

Back she went to punching below ground. Above, there was a dull thud, thud, thud, thud. Rocks and earth flew up in random spurts and gouts.

This went on for a while.

After a time, she got bored with that and just hurled rocks as hard as she could into a hill. Most of the rocks blew straight through. Eventually that bored her too.

She hurled patterns of stone into the hillside, just for fun—making a smiley face at one point—then she turned to another hillside. She made busts of the Gaang, Aang, Katara, Zuko, Suki, and Sokka, and put silly expressions on their faces. Making Sokka's face move was especially fun.

When she was finished (and more or less in a better mood), she smoothed the field and hills back into place and put the trees right-side-up. She knew it wasn't _exactly_ like it had been, but... it was close. Generally speaking.

She then headed back to the Gaang's house.

Sokka was the first one to see her. "Heeeeeey! Toph! Where were you? I was just talking about you."

Toph shrugged. "Doing some anger management."

"What? I didn't know you were angry!"

That earned a frown—and a no-look punch to the upper arm. "Exactly."

She walked away. Sokka stood there rubbing his arm—and wondering what he had missed.


	16. Just Looking

One morning I woke up and saw my wife next to me, just peacefully sleeping. I realized how blessed I was, how lucky I was, to have her. Later that day on the train into work, I got to wondering if Aang might feel the same way about Katara; this is the result. :D Hope you like it.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Just Looking<strong>_

Aang woke up suddenly. He didn't know why exactly—he wasn't worried or anything—he just... did.

He yawned and stretched, and got ready to go back to sleep. And then he saw Katara.

She was just lying there, curled up a little, sleeping peacefully. Aang couldn't help but look.

And smile.

The girl of his dreams was over there. The girl of his waking dreams, really, ever since he emerged from the iceberg.

The caramel skin of her face had a soft sheen, her brown hair loose and surrounding her face. Except for her hair loopies, of course. Those darling hair loopies. But it went way deeper than that. Her kindness and compassion, her funny-ness, jokes that didn't quite work but were funny anyway...

Her passion. Her desire to help those in need, her cold fury in battle... her warm touch. Her kisses, all of them, on the cheek, on the lips, it didn't matter.

_No, it _does_ matter_, he told himself. That was something that made it all worthwhile. The physical act was nice, of course, but it was what it meant that made it far more. Far more.

This beautiful creature... this passionate, fiery, angry, funny, talented, imaginative girl... she was his. And more to the point, she had wanted _him_. She had chosen... him.

They had known each other for just a year, and gotten to know each other as friends and pals—and then when it occurred to Aang he wanted to know her far better, tell her far more about himself—

—and she answered—

Her laugh... her—all right, her "motherliness", he'd admit it. But that was just a facet of her caring, her love.

Her love... for him.

_I can't possibly ask for anything else,_ he thought. And sighed, happily.

She stirred. And woke, still sleepy.

"Aang?" She smiled. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Oh..." He smiled too, gently beaming. "Just looking."

"Okay..." Katara went back to sleep, a smile on her face.

He kept smiling, and looking at her. His eyes got heavy... and he smiled himself to sleep.


	17. Strangers Unawares

I have to admit, Irako, I really wish Katara had _told_ Aang that she loved him in addition to kissing him in the Finale. XD That said, I don't think that kiss was a "My Hero" kiss; there was too much relationship between Katara and Aang already for that, in my opinion. Katara was telling Aang she'd made her decision and what she'd decided. But I'm glad I'm supporting the cause. XD Thanks so much.

And Kimberly T., first... WOW at so many reviews! Thanks! And second... you're right to call me on the carpet about the possibility of Aang and Katara sleeping together at such a young age. What I meant to convey, though (and clearly didn't), was that I saw this happening with the whole Gaang around a campfire or something like that, not a situation where Katara and Aang were alone. I saw them sleeping _near_ each other, but not _with_ each other, and certainly not in that sense. Sorry about that... (I hope you keep reading my stories, though.)

This next one is something of a "what if" story, but I still could see it happening in the ATLA world. XD Hope you like it.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Angels Unawares<strong>_

The weather had turned blustery in Ba Sing Se, cold and gray. Winds were blowing leaves down the street, along with the occasional sheet of rain. At the Jasmine Dragon tea house, Iroh looked out at it and frowned. "Hmm... the weather is getting colder... changing. We can expect to see snow soon."

He turned back to the main room. There weren't that many customers today. Iroh had sent his helpers home; he figured people were being sensible and staying home to avoid the weather. Inside the tea house, though, the stoves in the corners gave off a good heat. The lamps on the walls shone with cheery yellow light, catching the golden dragon worked into the green carpet nicely. It was a comfortable place to be today.

Someone came in through the door and struggled to push it shut. He stood there panting for a moment, then headed to a table. "Spirits! This weather is incredible."

Iroh came over. "Good afternoon. What kind of tea can I bring you today?"

The customer was bedraggled and raggedly dressed. "Thank you. A pot of white oolong would be wonderful, please."

Iroh's eyebrow went up a little, then back down. "I will bring it as soon as it's ready."

The customer smiled. "Thank you."

Iroh returned to the kitchen. He warmed a pot, then ladled some steaming water into it. Reaching for the tea canister made him think; not many people knew about white oolong. And those that did...

When the pot was ready, he put it on a tray, added a teacup, and brought the tray out. The customer had removed his scarf; he was thin, and he had a pair of spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose. Iroh set the pot down. "I would complement you on your choice of tea. Not many people know about white oolong."

The customer took a deep breath and inhaled the aromas coming from the pot. He smiled. "Yes. It's one of my favorites."

Iroh smiled too. "It is a rather rare tea. I myself have it only once in a great while."

"Really? I'm used to having it all the time."

Iroh's eyebrow went up again briefly.

"Although it _has_ been a while since I had it last," the customer continued. "I've been out in the country for quite a while. And the things I've seen have been absolutely fascinating!"

"I wondered as much. Are you from the University?"

"No, no, I'm not." The man's eyes twinkled. "Although my travels have certainly taught me a lot."

"Really? Where have you travelled to?"

"All over." The man spread his arms wide. "Anywhere in the Earth Kingdom you can get to on foot. Well..." He lowered his arms. "That's exaggerating, of course. But for the past few months, I've been going anywhere I can, on foot and on bearback, to explore and learn."

Iroh nodded. "I have seen my share of ostrich horses. Riding them bareback is not easy—or comfortable, sometimes." The man made to say something, but Iroh continued. "Do you mind if I join you? Things are slow today."

"Please." The man smiled. "I'll be happy to share. You made the tea, anyway."

Iroh smiled. "I meant just the table, but the tea is appreciated." He fetched a teacup from the back and rejoined his customer.

The man sipped his tea and settled in. "I have seen this land in ways I never thought I would. I was told all about it by my teachers, of course, but what they told me pales in comparison with seeing it myself. I have seen people making things with their own hands, out in the fields, planting and harvesting their crops." He brightened. "I never knew you had to flood a field with water to plant rice! Just amazing. And the things a blacksmith can do with just a hammer and anvil and a forge... they really can create magic. Almost like they are Metalbenders, except they bend the metal with heat and their own strength. Simply magical."

"Yes." Iroh smiled. "They really can create wonders with just their own tools."

"Really? When did you see one?"

"As a soldier." Iroh darkened a little. "A long time ago."

"Yes." The customer darkened too. "I saw the effects of the war as well... the war that supposedly didn't exist. Families without fathers, sons... ravaged fields, burned towns... I saw the soldiers, too. Some of them did their duty, and served the Earth Kingdom and its people nobly. Others..." He looked at the teapot. "Not so much."

Iroh sipped his tea.

"But the people... the people are just like the land. They endure... and they grow back. Maybe not the same way as before, but they grow back. Their endurance and strength are unbelievable. And their fortitude. They give you strength, and hope. They renew your faith."

Iroh nodded. "I agree."

They sat there for a while, talking about the wonders of the Earth Kingdom. Eventually the man brought out his purse and counted out his few coins. "I think I have enough..." He looked to Iroh. "Before I go, I'd like to ask for a bowl of tea. Jasmine, please."

Iroh nodded and stood. "Certainly. And please. Hearing about your travels is more than enough payment."

The man grinned. "Thank you. It is greatly appreciated."

Iroh waved his hand. "Don't mention it. But I am curious as to why you would like a _bowl_ of tea."

"Well, it's for my bear, you see."

"Your... bear?"

"Yes. He's waiting outside for me—sheltered from the wind, of course—and he likes jasmine tea. I didn't want to disturb anyone." The man looked at Iroh. "I've found his presence can be a little alarming."

"I see. That shouldn't be a problem. I will bring it out as soon as it is ready."

Iroh went to the back and prepared the tea. He waited while the tea steeped.

And then his eyes widened. A smile grew on his face.

He chuckled. And kept chuckling. Eventually it grew to a quiet, full-on belly laugh, as he tried to keep quiet. It wouldn't do to laugh at his guest.

He took a moment to compose himself. He wiped his eyes. _To think... despite everything... I wound up serving him tea after all._

_Destiny is indeed a funny thing._

He placed the bowl of jasmine tea on a tray, and brought it out to his guest.


	18. Beneath the Southern Lights

Sorry I've been gone so long, guys. I've been-heh-involved with something else.

This next one is a little different for me. It's AU in a certain sense, in that one character here is seasonally appropriate, but certainly not series-appropriate. :D Please tell me what you think.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Beneath <strong>__**the **__**Southern **__**Lights**_

Katara and Aang were flying on Appa near the Southern Water Tribe Village. There was an aurora in the night sky, and Katara and Aang wanted to look at it. They could have hung around for Sokka's dissertation on the causes of the aurora (and Toph's hilarious refutation of it), but they wanted some alone time.

"That was a great idea to fly up here, Katara," said Aang.

"Thanks." Katara smiled. "I've seen a few of them, but never from the middle of the sky. And I know you haven't seen that many."

Aang nodded. "No, I haven't. This is terrific!" He turned to Katara. "It's great to share it with you, too." Katara beamed.

The night sky was speckled with stars, white, yellow, even the occasional red and green ones, while the aurora hung curtains of green, blue, and purple against the midnight blue sky.

"Hey, what's that?"

Aang turned. "What?"

Katara pointed. Off in the distance was something, airborne, silhouetted by the aurora.

"Let's check it out." Aang turned Appa toward it.

As they drew closer, the object grew long and narrow, but thicker on its left end. Projections appeared along its back.

Aang squinted. "It looks like a... caterpillar deer."

"Yeah, but a flying caterpillar deer? And this has horns all along its back, not just on its head."

"Yeah, true..."

The legs along its bottom became more distinct, and what they had thought was one long body turned out to be several. Horned creatures in the front were linked together with straps and tied to an odd sort of tub in the back. A man rode in the tub, holding the straps.

The man turned, and saw them. After a moment, he waved, and gestured down. The creatures brought the craft lower.

"I think he wants us to follow him," said Aang.

Katara shrugged. "I'm game."

He looked at her and smiled. "You would be."

"What can I say? I'm adventurous. Must be the company I keep." She gave him a nudge. He nudged back.

They followed the man down. The man brought his contraption in for a smooth landing on a wide iceberg. Katara and Aang landed nearby and dismounted.

The man levered himself out of his tub and walked toward them. The creatures that pulled the tub slightly reminded them of sabre-toothed moose lions, but these animals were much smaller and more slender. The tub was red with gold and white trim—not Fire Nation red, but a happier, cheerier color. The man was clad in the same color, bright red trimmed with white fur in the middle and at the cuffs, and he wore black boots and a black belt with a broad gold buckle. He was broad with an ample belly; he reminded them of Iroh in some ways, but he was taller, and his beard was white rather than gray.

"Hello!" said Aang. "Are you from the Fire Nation?"

The man chuckled. "No, but I'm headed there tonight. I'm glad I found you. I have something for both of you." There was a twinkle in his eye. "I suppose I could have left it at home for you like I normally do, but this is better." He headed back to his tub, which they saw was full of sacks.

"Who are you?" asked Katara.

"Oh, I'm known by many names in many lands. The name's not so important."

He opened a sack. "Let's see, now..." He rummaged around. "Ah, here we are." He brought a over a fur-covered doll. "This is for you, Katara." He handed it to her.

"Wait. How do you know my—" She looked at what he had given her, and gasped. "My Snugli!" She looked at it wide-eyed, then looked back at the man. "But how did you—?"

He merely smiled, and opened another pack.

Aang looked at the doll. "What did he give you?"

"My Snugli." Katara looked at it. "Mom gave me this, and I lost it about a year after Mom died. It fell in and went beneath the ice." She snuggled it. "I thought it was gone forever." She looked up. "I can't believe this."

"And this is for you, Aang." The man handed Aang a piece of paper.

Aang couldn't believe his eyes. "Oh my gosh..."

Katara looked at it. "What is it?"

"It's Gyatso's aircake recipe! I never got it from him, and I always—" He too looked at the man. "How...?"

"And he thought you could use a demonstration model." The man handed him an aircake, wrapped in a transparent paper of some sort. Aang could smell the lemon, even through the paper.

"And also..." The man grunted as he lifted something heavy out of the tub. "For you, Appa. Catch!" He hurled a huge green and white melon Appa's way. Appa caught it on the fly. He chewed it up and enjoyed it, rumbling his satisfaction.

"I was also asked to deliver a message." The man laid his hands on their shoulders, looked at them, and smiled. "They see you. They see you, and they want you to know that they love you, just as they always did. And they're as proud of you both as they've ever been." He smiled warmly. Then he walked away, and got back into his tub.

Katara found her voice first. "Sir! How can we ever thank you?"

"Thank me? Well..." The man's eye twinkled. "You're doing that already, just as you are. But if you really want to thank me..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Pass it on to others."

He turned to his team. "All right, now, you've had a good rest. It's time to go." He cracked the reins, and the team moved out. "Up... up... and awaaaaaaaayyyy!" The contraption lifted off and headed into the sky.

Katara and Aang watched him go, the craft once more becoming a strange silhouette in the night sky. "Who was that man?" Katara wondered. "I've never seen him before... and yet he knew our names, seemed to know... so much about us."

"I don't know," said Aang. "They do say that the aurora is a bridge between worlds. Maybe... someone from the Spirit World?"

"Maybe. I know _I've_ never seen anyone like that before."

They clambered aboard Appa and headed home. And they couldn't help looking at the aurora, and wondering who might be looking back.

And smiling.

* * *

><p>Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everybody. :D<p> 


	19. Presentation

_****_Thanks, Irako! :D Yes, I hope to update more frequently; I don't have any active projects right now, so hopefully...

Yes, I did leave Momo out of the picture, come to think of it; he easily could have come with them, too. (thinks) Not sure what Santa would bring him, though...

So meanwhile, back in the Fire Nation...

Bit of a companion piece. XD Hope you like it, too.

* * *

><p><em><strong><span>Presentation<span>**_

The Fire Palace was quiet at night. A fire burned in the fireplace in the hall, casting yellow-orange light. Zuko stretched lazily and yawned, on his way to his quarters for the night, when he stopped, seeing the strangest thing hanging from the mantlepiece.

A bright red sock.

It was about as long as his arm and trimmed at the top with bright white fur. Certainly it wasn't something he would wear, certainly it wasn't something of his.

So what was it doing there?

Someone had even placed a lit lamp nearby, so he was meant to see it. Given the moods of people nowadays, it could be anything from a gift from well-wishers to a bomb. He approached it warily.

"You should accept it."

He whirled, dropping into a martial arts stance. The voice came from a figure in the corner, clad in red with black boots. Zuko couldn't see the face in the shadows. "Who are you?"

"I think you should open your gift." The voice was neutral, a little low, maybe a high man's voice.

"A gift. Is that what this is?" Zuko challenged. "What's in it?"

"Open it and see."

He stood there looking at the interloper in the corner, who didn't move. "What if I call the guards?"

"You could do that. But I think you'd feel silly."

He didn't feel silly; he felt on edge. Still, he did have that option if he needed it. "All right…" He went to the fireplace, took down the sock, and looked inside. He brought out a package. "Coal. Is this a joke?"

"There's more."

" 'There's more.' Yeah, I can see that—" He stopped when he felt the next package. He brought it out. "A diamond?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Consider it a reminder."

"A reminder of what?" His voice was still hard.

"They say when you put coal under immense heat and pressure for a long time, it becomes a diamond. The coal is what you were… the diamond is what you are."

"So why are you giving me this?"

The figure came into the firelight and smiled. "Because I wanted to."

Zuko was stunned. "Mai!"

"Actually, there was this big man in a red suit that came by a while ago. He said those were for you, and he told me why." She shrugged. "He thought I'd be able to present it to you better." She held up an arm. "He let me borrow this, too."

Zuko was still getting over the shock. "Not your usual color."

"Well, thank you." She smiled. "He also said these weren't from him."

"So why did he…?"

"Look in the sock."

He looked. He brought out one more package. "Cinnamon fire flakes? I haven't had these since…"

He looked at Mai. "Since I was a kid. And Mom would…" His eyes widened. "These are from… Mom?"

"That's what he said."

"But how? I… don't understand."

"Zuko." She looked into his eyes. "You don't _have_ to understand. Just accept it."

"Okay…." He looked off into space, over her shoulder. "She _is_ out there…"

Mai waited a moment, not wanting to interrupt—just yet. At the end of that moment, she took his chin.

"And… _I_ wanted to give you a present, too."

"Oh?"

She kissed him lightly on the lips, then walked away. "That is… if you wanted to unwrap it."

He realized what she was talking about.

He grinned, and followed in her footsteps.


	20. Twas the Night Before Maiko Style

Yup. Zuko got coal. XD Thanks, Irako!

(And come to think of it, it probably was better, for Santa's sake, that Mai made the delivery.)

And you can thank Chaka for this next one. She saw a bit of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" in the last one, and so...

* * *

><p><em><strong><span>'<span>Twas the Night Before Christmas—Maiko Style**_

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the Palace,  
>Not a creature was stirring, nor moving with malice.<br>A stocking was hung by the fireplace with care,  
>In hopes that the Fire Lord soon would be there.<br>In the fullness of time, Zuko came walking by,  
>And the stocking of red did indeed catch his eye.<br>It did more than that. It attracted his stare,  
>And he thought to himself, "What is <em>that<em> doing there?"

The stocking was red with a trim of white fur—  
>Not something he'd wear. (That'd cause quite a stir!)<br>He studied the sock with uneasy aplomb;  
>It could be a gift… or it could be a bomb.<br>It wasn't an easy decision to make:  
>Take it, or leave it—that's no piece of cake.<br>And then from the corner, in his moment of dread,  
>"You should accept it," is what a voice said.<p>

Zuko whirled on the spot in a martial arts stance.  
>"Who are you?" he challenged, and hoping perchance<br>That this would reveal just who stood there, so snide.  
>"I think you should open your gift," it replied.<br>"I could call the guards." "I think you'd feel silly."  
>Indeed, he felt silly as things went willy-nilly.<br>"All right…" he relented, and reached for the sock.  
>The last thing he expected to find was a rock.<p>

He cried, "Is this a joke?" as he brought out the coal.  
>"There's more," the voice said, sounding thoroughly droll.<br>"A diamond?" he said. Zuko now was confused.  
>"It's a reminder," the voice said, bemused.<br>"Of what?" he demanded. The voice said, "Okay:  
>"When coal has great heat and great pressure in play,<br>"The product's a diamond, as bright as a star.  
>"So the coal's what you were… the diamond, what you are."<p>

"So why are you giving me this?" Zuko said.  
>The figure stepped into the light, all in red.<br>"Because that's what I wanted," Mai said in reply.  
>"I do have to add, there was also this guy<br>"Who was dressed just like this, and said these were for you."  
>Mai smiled and gestured. "He let me borrow this, too."<br>"Not your usual color," he said, feeling dim.  
>"Thank you," she said. "Oh-these gifts aren't from him."<p>

"So who are they from?" She said, "Look in the sock."  
>Zuko did, one more time. He expected a rock,<br>But then what to his wondering eyes did appear,  
>But cinnamon fire flakes. "Haven't had these in years!<br>"And Mom would-hold on now. My _mom_ sent me these?"  
>"That's what he said," Mai said, being a tease.<br>"But how?" he exclaimed. "I still don't know why."  
>"Zuko," Mai said. "You don't have to try."<p>

She let him work through all of that in his head.  
>"She's still really out there…" he dreamily said.<br>Mai gave him the moment, and when it was through,  
>Took hold of his chin. "I have something for you."<br>She kissed him quite gently, and then walked away.  
>"If you want to unwrap it," is all she would say.<br>They said not a word as they walked out of sight,  
>But I think we can say that they had a good night.<p> 


	21. The Next Move

Hello again. :D I got away from ATLA Wanderings because I was working on my Book 4 project (which turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.) Although _Korra_ is in the offing now, I do plan to keep writing ATLA fics, probably some _Korra_ too, when I feel confident enough.

Hope you like this next one.

* * *

><p><em><strong>The Next Move<strong>_

Ozai pondered his options… such as they were.

His hair was no longer the long, lustrous tide of dark magic that it had been; it was a mess. His clothes were rags, not the silks and velvets from before. His skin had taken on a prison pallor.

His brow furrowed in thought as he considered plot after plot, move after move that would improve his position _somehow_ from where he was. He didn't like what he saw. At all. His opponent had planned too well.

Or so it seemed.

Was there maybe some… avenue of escape? Something his foe had not considered?

Yes…

In the bleak darkness of despair, a dim light beckoned.

There was something there, yes… but was it a trap? Something to bring him lower than he already was?

He thought on it more, examined it, dissected it with the finest of knives, then angrily, desperately hurled every single worst case scenario he could think of at it to see if it would crack.

He found it without flaw.

A slow, sly smile blossomed on his face.

He sighted his target… then he thrust his hand through the bars and slammed a rock on the table.

Ozai grinned in triumph.

"_**Ha!**_"

He leaned in toward the bars. "Let's see how you deal with _that_, O mighty Fire Lord!"

On the other side of the table from him, Zuko sat, fuming. Now it was his turn to look at the pai sho board and simmer.

Ozai sat back slightly, folded his arms, and smiled. If only for a moment, he could enjoy his son's problems.

And gloat.


	22. Tea for One

_**Tea for One**_

The new guy was a pro.

He didn't know _this_ branch of the Golden Panda Tea House so well _yet_, but he knew customer service, and he knew tea. Confidence was his middle name.

So when the old Water Tribe woman walked into the tea house and took a seat, he didn't bat an eye—even though she did appear somewhat... _rustic_ in her traditional Water Tribe garb. She was a customer and he would serve her, no matter how outlandish or uneducated her requests might be.

_He'd_ show 'em how they did things downtown.

The server approached her table and bowed with decorum. "Good afternoon, madam. And what may I bring you today?"

She smiled. "White oolong tea, please. And two cups."

_That_ earned her a note of respect; whoever knew about white oolong knew a _little_ something about tea. He nodded. "White oolong and two cups. Yes, madam. Are you expecting someone else today?"

Her eyes twinkled. "Yes and no."

He paused mentally at that, but one could barely tell from the outside. "Yes, madam. I will bring the tea as soon as it's ready."

"Thank you."

He bowed and went to put in the order.

The server tended to his other customers, though there weren't many this afternoon; spring had finally made a firm appearance in Republic City, and the weather was warmer than it had been in weeks. A lot of people were outside enjoying the passing of winter.

He chuckled. _Too bad for them,_ he thought. Rich golden sunlight streamed in through the windows of the tea house, making the motes of dust in the air glitter and dance.

Then he chanced to look over at the Water Tribe woman, who was talking to herself—no, more like talking to someone in the chair across from her... but she was all alone.

He thought sourly on that—then shrugged and chuckled to himself. _The elderly_.

The steeping area was in the back of the tea house, mainly for convenience. A long sideboard waited for steeping pots. A few pots were there, each with a slip of paper marked with ideograms showing what kind of tea was inside and who the tea was for. The server went to the steeping area, checked the woman's tea, and found it ready. Onto the tray went the pot of tea and two cups—_**two**_ cups, he sniffed—and over to the woman's table he went.

Yes, she was still in the middle of a conversation. "That older son of yours wrote to me the other day. –Yes, him. He likes the United Forces very much—and he likes the Fire Nation girls even better." She chuckled. "If Zuko doesn't keep an eye on him, he's going to—" Then she noticed the server, and she stopped and smiled.

Ever the professional, the server put the pot of tea on the table, set the cups in their places, and filled her cup full. The _sound_ of the tea, at least, was on cue, having just the right ascending tone as it went into the cup. That too he took pride in.

He went to fill the other cup; it wasn't exactly protocol, but he figured the old woman would appreciate the gesture, giving tea to her "guest". She stopped him. "No... that's all right. You don't have to fill the other cup."

"But I am sure, madam, that your guest would like to—"

"No, that's all right. He won't need the tea."

Another mental pause... this one not so invisible. "Very well, madam. Do let me know if you need anything."

"Certainly. Thank you."

He bowed and headed to check on the other pots. He was only a few paces away when he heard the woman speak again. "You _sure_ you don't want some of the tea? It's very very good..."

He turned in time to see the Water Tribe woman bending her tea up out of her cup toward where her partner's lips might be—if there had been someone there. The sight of the woman's face set in a teasing smile while the fine brown thread of liquid hung in the air and everyone being able to see was just—"

He turned decisively toward the teapots.

Another server at the station saw his discomfort and chuckled. "Enjoying serving our guest?"

That drew a sharp look and a matching retort. "I suppose I'll _enjoy_ cleaning up the mess."

His coworker's smile grew. "You don't know who she is, do you?"

"No." He busied himself with the pots. "What is there to know? She's a loopy old woman who thinks she's having tea with someone."

"Maybe she is."

That brought a thundercloud to his brow. _If_ that's _how you're going to conduct yourself_— He checked a last pot, went back to the first, put it none too gently on his tray, followed it with some cups, and left.

"Hey."

Why he bothered to stop he didn't know; decorum, maybe. He turned around.

His coworker looked serious. "All I'm saying is, you might want to find out who she is. It will be worth your while."

"And you won't tell me."

"I will—but not yet. There's a reason why she's doing what she is."

_Other than an old woman Waterbending her tea in public to someone who isn't there,_ he grumbled to himself as he headed off to his other guests. But a customer was a customer, and maybe he could find out why the other server thought the old woman was special. Besides, one could always use more polish on their customer service skills.

_Some more than others_, he thought.

His immediate responsibilities tended to, he went over to the "mystery" Water Tribe woman, and… talked. "I do beg your pardon, madam, but I _am_ curious as to who you're expecting."

A wry eyebrow went up. "Expecting?" A smile. "I'm not _expecting_ anyone."

_You aren't going to make this easy, are you?_ He collected himself and smiled. "I mean, who your guest is."

She looked toward the empty chair, smiled, then looked to the sunfilled window. "I suppose the best way to explain is that this teahouse has always been a favorite of ours… my husband's and mine. It was one of the first places we visited when we moved here from Ba Sing Se."

"Ah, the Earth Kingdom capital." The server clasped his tray at his waist. "I take it your husband is no longer with us, then."

Another wry look at the empty chair, then some sadness. "In one sense... no. He's not. He passed away last year."

"I'm sorry… my condolences, madam."

"Thank you." A sad smile, to him. "It's all right now, really. It was hard at first… you're so used to someone always being there, you always expect to see them, and then you don't… it was hard. I can't tell you how often I cried."

"Yes."

"I eventually learned, though…" She laughed softly and wiped away a tear. "I really should have thought of it sooner."

She looked up. "He never left."

The server felt himself warming toward this woman, that she should feel this way toward her deceased husband. it was a sweet thing. But then: "He has things he has to do, of course—especially with the coming of the new Avatar—but he always comes back."

That… was a bit much.

A correct smile. "You must miss him very much." There; that was safe.

The old woman was frowningly bemused. She turned toward the empty chair. "Should I tell him?" A pause. "All right. I'll let him figure it out."

She turned back to the server. "Young man, I know that if I said I saw my husband's spirit years ago flying across the sky at the North Pole, you would think I'm crazy—if you don't think that already. So let me tell you something: it doesn't hurt to adjust your thinking for what other people see. It might even lead you to think in new ways."

She looked him in the eye. "My brother is one of the most… stubborn people you've ever met. _He_ believes in science. If you can prove it, he'll believe it. That's him. But he fell in love with a girl who _he_ saw become the Moon. And despite all his science and everything that says _that can't happen_, he'll swear to you it did.

"So where am I going with this?"

"Yes, where are you going with this?" he couldn't help saying.

"Where I am going with this," she continued, "is yes. I do miss my husband. But I've also learned…" She looked down and smiled. Then she looked to him again. "...How to see him. So I miss him… and I don't. Because he's here."

There were times when you nodded your head and went forward, the server had learned. He bowed. "Madam… I wish you my condolences, along with every happiness. If I may, I would like to pour a cup of tea, in honor of your guest."

"Oh, very well." A resigned smile from the old woman. "I don't think he'll mind."

The server took the pot of tea from the table and poured the second cup full, taking his time as the cup made its slowly ascending ringing sound. He replaced the pot, bowed once to the old woman, who returned it with a nod, then to the empty chair. He left.

"Did I confuse him enough for you?" he heard her say.

The woman eventually paid her bill and left, and the server went to clean the table. His coworker came over. "Did you figure it out?"

A slight shrug. "No. Just someone who…" He thought about it, then rephrased his thoughts, for the other customers' benefit. "...Likes to talk to herself, I suppose."

His coworker was amused.

"All right. I'll tell you."

She came close and whispered.

He frowned as he worked through it… then clue after clue from what the old woman said clicked into place.

His face went blank.

The other server patted his shoulder. "Just because you can't see… doesn't mean you can't believe."

She left. He stood there, blank-faced. He looked at the second cup of tea. A thread of steam curled up from the cup, almost as if it was being wafted up by someone who wasn't there.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** One of my own headcanon is that during and after the Siege at the North Pole, Katara could indeed see Aang's spirit. That made me think that while Katara would grieve for Aang, deeply, things weren't as bad as they might have been once she knew or remembered how to "see" him. Why she couldn't when Hei Bai was causing trouble, I don't know, but there it is.

Thanks again for reading. :D Hope you liked it.


	23. The Fate of Lu Ten

Thanks, everybody. :D

Heh. Just had a thought-spirit Aang peering over Korra-era Zuko's shoulder while Katara's around, poking a little fun at him. :D I'll have to explore that.

I agree, Irako; Katara certainly knew Aang a lot better by the time they reached the North Pole, and she was near one of the most spirit-attuned places the Water Tribes possessed on a night when the moon was full. If all that didn't help her "see" Aang, nothing would!

And yeah, I do enjoy doing the slow reveal of the character. XD Thanks.

This next one I've had in mind for a while; I just hadn't had time to get it down on paper, and then into a computer. In part, I guess you could call this "How Wulf Occupies Himself in Airports"; I wrote this going to and coming back from our vacation last month. You could also call it Zuko and Aang playing a "what if" game about how things might have been different if... well, you'll see.

Hope you like it. And thanks again for reading. _And_ commenting. XD

* * *

><p><em><strong>The Fate of Lu Ten<strong>_

It was a quiet spring night in the Fire Nation. There still was a chill in the air from the winter not long past, but nothing good companionship couldn't overcome, or a good fire.

Zuko, Lord of the Fire Nation, was at such a fire… alone.

He sat and gazed into the fire pit outside the Palace, stirring the fire's embers now and then and idly pondering the newborn flames. Or at least he looked at them; his mind wasn't on the fire. There he sat; quiet, barely moving, barely breathing. His dark red robes blended into the night, his face bathed in the fire's yellow-orange glow.

Then Aang turned a corner and found him.

"There you are!" He smiled. "I thought you might be here. Mai said she finds you here sometimes."

Zuko recovered from his initial cringe. "Yeah."

Aang stood there for a moment, not sure how to respond. He shrugged to himself and went on. "Can I... join you?"

After another moment, Zuko shrugged. He gestured at the far bench. "Suit yourself."

"Uh, thanks." Aang came around and sat opposite him.

Zuko continued to gaze into the fire, not saying anything. Aang sat there too, feeling out of place, wanting to say something but knowing Zuko's moods. Still, Zuko had allowed him to stay around.

He cleared his throat.

"So... what are you doing?"

Zuko took his time.

"Thinking."

"About what?"

"About us."

"Us?" Aang looked perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"I was thinking about us... us, and Lu Ten."

"Lu Ten? Your cousin?"

"Yeah."

Aang frowned. "Now I'm really confused."

"I know. It's hard to explain."

"Well..." Aang shrugged, his hands out to his sides. "We do have all night."

After a moment, Zuko gave him a look. Aang shrugged again, smiled, and gestured to him. Zuko frowned.

Then he sighed, looked into the fire, marshaled his thoughts, and began.

"When Lu Ten died, his death broke Uncle's heart. Uncle broke off the siege of Ba Sing Se, and returned to the Fire Nation a broken failure."

A look of sour disgust came over his face. "Uncle's return motivated my father to petition my grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon, to remove Uncle from the line of succession—in favor of my father." His next words were hard to speak; he spoke hoarsely. "Then something happened to my grandfather, and my mother had to flee. Because of that, my father became the Fire Lord, and I became the Crown Prince."

Aang nodded sympathetically. "I remember you telling us this."

"And because of that, I was allowed to go to that one meeting where I challenged the general's plan to sacrifice that division of raw recruits—_in_ my father's presence. When I refused to fight my father, he burned me—and then he banished me." Aang nodded sadly.

"If I hadn't been banished," Zuko went on, "I wouldn't have been told to '_**find the Avatar.**_' " He looked up at Aang after his dramatic pronouncement and smiled. "I wouldn't have found _you_. I wouldn't have done all that stupid stuff in the Water Tribe village. I wouldn't have followed you all over the world… and learned so much about myself. I wouldn't be who I am today. And we wouldn't have the peace that we do."

Another shrug from Aang. "Well, _that's_ a good thing. Several of them, actually."

"But that's just it! If Lu Ten hadn't died, none of that would have happened. I wouldn't have been banished, I wouldn't have been sent to find you, I _wouldn't_ have found you, and none of that would have ever happened!"

Aang tilted his head. "So…"

"So all of that happened because Lu Ten died. If he hadn't, we wouldn't have met, or anything else. Everything would be… different."

Aang nodded, wanting to follow along. "Yeah, it would be… so…"

"I'm just thinking Lu Ten didn't have to die for all that. He was a good guy. I remember." Zuko looked at the fire again. "He was a good cousin."

The fire crackled as Aang tried to find something to say.

Zuko laughed once softly and smiled. "Uncle's heart wouldn't have been broken either. He would have gone on with the siege. He would have won. Ba Sing Se would have fallen, and the war probably would have been over then. He could have come home."

"I don't know…" Aang rubbed his chin in thought. "_We_ fought on after Ba Sing Se fell."

"Yeah, but you had limited options. You couldn't control the Earth King's armies anymore."

A knowing grin. "We didn't need 'em—did we?"

"No, but—"Aang's grin widened. Zuko eventually answered with a smile. "All right, I admit it. You didn't need them." Aang sat back, still grinning.

Zuko sombered. "I'm just thinking that so many things happened because Lu Ten died, and if he hadn't died, so many things could be different. Uncle might be the Fire Lord instead of me. The war might be over now."

"But it _is_ over!"

"I mean it would have been over sooner, and someone wise might be in charge—instead of me."

That drew a skeptical look from Aang.

"Zuko—I'm no great judge when it comes to wisdom—I mean, I agree your uncle is wise and all—but think about what you've been through! You're not the same guy as when I first met you. You've learned a lot. You're a lot smarter, I think, because of what you've been through."

"But that's just it!" Zuko interjected. "I wouldn't've _gone_ through all that if Lu Ten hadn't died! Because he did, I am who I am! And if he hadn't, I wouldn't be!"

Aang frowned.

"That's one of the most messed up things I've ever heard. Zuko—did you kill Lu Ten?"

"What? No!"

"Did you have anything to do with his death?"

"No!"

"Did you have any control over how he died?"

"_No!_"

"Then _why are you worrying about it?_"

"_Because_—" Then Zuko stopped, not knowing what to say next. He thought about it. "Because… I feel guilty. A lot of things happened because he died, including me learning about myself. Including me becoming Fire Lord. He was a good guy. _He_ would have been Fire Lord eventually, instead of me. But here I am. Because of him."

For a while the fire was the only thing that made a sound.

"Zuko… I don't know how to answer you, but… years and years ago, before the war… I ran away. I ran away from the Southern Air Temple. I didn't want to be the Avatar, but they were going to make me. They were going to take me away from Gyatso, my mentor. My best friend."

"Why?"

"The other Air Nomads thought Gyatso wasn't going to be tough enough on me. So I ran. When I did, I got caught in a storm. I went down into the water. I almost drowned. The Avatar Spirit saved me. It froze me into a block of ice."

Zuko nodded. "And there you stayed for a hundred years."

Aang nodded in turn. "Thinking about it now, it was pretty silly to run away—but I didn't want them taking me away from Gyatso. But because I _did_, I wasn't around when…"

"When the Fire Nation attacked," Zuko finished.

"Yeah," Aang replied. "If I hadn't run, they would have caught me. We wouldn't be here talking about it." Zuko nodded.

Aang gestured to him. "I know I really couldn't have _done_ anything—I mean, I only knew how to bend Air—but I keep wondering if I could have done _something_. Maybe some… crazy awful Avatar Spirit rush or something."

Again Zuko nodded. "But you didn't. You _weren't_ there when things happened. You're here. Now."

"Yeah… and because I am, I met you. I met Katara." Aang couldn't help but blush a little—not that anyone could tell in the firelight—but his train of thought still went off the rails.

"Yeah." Zuko smiled himself. "I know what you mean."

Aang came back to himself. "Yeah. You. Katara. Right." Zuko snickered. "And because I did, _I_ learned… and I eventually mastered all four elements, and I stopped Ozai. Er, your father. I mean."

Another smile. "Yeah."

A few grasshopper crickets chirped.

"If I hadn't run away, all that wouldn't have happened," Aang said. "But then I don't know if I could have done anything. But I would have been there, with them. But because I did run, I'm here. Now. And the war _is_ over. Thanks to both of us."

"Yeah."

"So I don't know if that helps, but… yeah."

Zuko tilted his head. "So… what are you trying to say?"

"Well, I… wasn't trying to say anything, I think. I guess I just felt the same way about something else. Kind of… similar."

"Okay…"

"Hey, I was trying to help!"

"I know. I think I get it."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They let the fire occupy the conversation for a while. Again.

"I mean, I'm not a fount of wisdom or anything," Aang broke in with suddenly, "but I think it's okay to feel guilty about that kind of thing, and appreciate what they did."

Zuko looked over. "What who did? What kind of thing?"

"What Lu Ten did. He _was_ who we were talking about, right?"

"Yeah, but we were talking about Gyatso."

"Yeah, but I meant Lu Ten."

"But Lu Ten really didn't do anything, he just… died."

"Well, you said everything happened because of Lu Ten!"

"Yeah, it did, but I…" Zuko pushed down with his hands into the air. "Okay, I think… _what?_"

"Okay, let me start over." Aang straightened. "I _think_ it's okay to feel guilty about what happened to Lu Ten, and appreciate that _in a way, thanks to him **and** thanks to Gyatso_, we are where we are."

Zuko nodded with finality. "Okay. I agree."

"I also think he would appreciate us thinking about him, the way you were."

"I agree." Zuko smiled. "And _I_ think Gyatso would feel the same way."

Aang looked at the fire and smiled. "I think you're right."

Neither had anything else to say, so after a while, they both sat back… and enjoyed the fire and the night.

It also didn't hurt to think that somewhere else, those that had passed on were smiling.


	24. Eye Scream

Thanks, Vee, lazy!RedKetchup, papyrus, VividDreamer. :D I appreciate it. And gosh, Vee, papyrus… those are a whale of a compliment-about as good as I can get. Thank you!

I wonder some times if Lu Ten was an "older brother" of sorts to Zuko, certainly an older cousin, and if the two of them had that sort of relationship. As close as Iroh was to Zuko even before Lu Ten's death, I would think Lu Ten and Iroh would have the chance to spend time together, so… I wonder.

I also feel-well, like I said in the story, that Zuko owes a lot of where he is and who he is to the fact that Lu Ten was killed, and even though the event was completely outside his control, he is serious about things. He cares. That's one thing I like about him. And so… he ponders. I feel Aang is just as serious-minded and cares just as much, and there definitely is a bond between the two of them; he would want to ease Zuko's mind if he could.

Thank you again for reading, guys. :D

This next one is another one I worked up during my past trip, and this too I've had in mind for a while. Hope you like it.

I... don't think it'll take you too long to figure out what Sokka's making, either.

This one's for you, Vee. XDD

* * *

><p><strong><em><span>Eye Scream<span>_**

A grinding sound wormed its way into Toph's sleep.

That in itself wasn't unusual—everything where they were was grinding at one time or another—but she couldn't instinctively tell what this was. That feeling bothered her... and it eventually brought her out of sleep.

She grumbled.

Someone else was about to be bothered.

It had been hot on this tour through the Fire Nation (Aang and Katara called it a "tour"; Toph and Sokka had whole other descriptions entirely.) Things had gone well, all things considered, but today, Katara and Aang had been invited to something that Toph and Sokka... had not. So while Katara and Aang were off being feted by Fire Lord Zuko, Toph and Sokka had to sit. And wait. In the heat.

Toph's first response had been to go like a badgermole and burrow into the ground to escape the heat, but Katara had said that would give the wrong impression. Toph had had plenty of other impressions to give on the matter, much to Sokka's amusement and Katara's... well. Toph then chose the next best option: sleep through the heat outside in her Earth tent. It was cooler in there than in the ornate (and stifling) guest house Zuko had given them.

Now this.

Grinding sounds themselves she'd gotten used to in the heavily industrialized Fire Nation. _This_ sounded and felt like minerals being ground together. And she, the best Earthbender in the world, with extensive knowledge of rock, earth, minerals, and everything in and around them, didn't know how it was taking place.

Down came the front of her Earth tent and out she stomped to find out what was in the world was going on. The wall of heat she walked into didn't improve her mood much.

What she found was Sokka on the front step of the guest house, doing... something.

"Hey, Toph."

That response didn't improve her mood, either.

"Sokka—I was asleep."

Naturally, his reply was intelligently phrased.

"Oh—did I wake you? Sorry."

That didn't help either.

"Sokka—_what_ are you doing?"

A mental shrug. "Turning a crank in this thing."

"And this 'thing' is...?"

"You know, I didn't catch the name of it... It's a machine of some sort."

"A machine. You're turning the crank on a machine."

"Yeah. Why?"

"Why are you turning a crank on a machine?" Toph's volume level began to build. Even given Sokka's love of machines, this was ridiculous. "It's as hot as an oven out here, and you're turning the crank on a _machine?_"

"Yes."

"_Why?_"

"Well, I was out shopping yesterday, and this guy had something interesting—a pail with a crank on it. I was curious, so I asked him what it did, and he told me. He gave me the formula to use, too. It makes something a lot like _akutaq_, and when I heard that, I had to try it. Especially as hot as it is."

Toph's own temperature was starting to go up. "Okay, so you've got this _wonderful_ new machine, and it makes hackeytack or something—"

"_Akutaq_", Sokka corrected.

"_Whatever!_ So you're turning the crank on this whatever-it-is to go and make hoozits, and you wake me up _in the middle of this heat!_"

"Look, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to wake you up! I'll try to grind more quietly somehow!"

"Good!" She stomped back to where her napping spot was. "I don't understand why you have to make this honkeytonk _now_ in the first place!"

" '_Akutaq_'," Sokka corrected again.

"WHATEVER!" _Slam_ went the front of her Earth tent as it came up.

Sokka looked at the newly raised wedge of stone. He blinked.

"Huh. She didn't even ask me what it was."

Sokka did his best to keep the noise level down, but try as he might, he was fighting a losing battle. Toph was sensitive to sound in the first place, and being an Earthbender only made her more so. Short of stopping or moving somewhere else, it was near impossible for Sokka to make a sound that Toph could _not_ hear—and trying to keep it quiet seemed to make it worse. Now Sokka's grinding was irregular, random, erratic... and _that_ to Toph was even worse than a steady, regular grind.

She couldn't get back to sleep. At all. She growled.

Down came the front of the Earth tent again. She stomped over Sokka's way—and yes, it was still as hot as a furnace.

And Sokka, all too aware now, cringed. "Hey, Toph."

To which Toph replied with a voice of satiny sweetness. "Good afternoon, Sokka."

He tried some damage control. "Did I wake you again? Because you won't have to worry about that much longer. I'm almost done. I think."

"That's _wooooonderful_, Sokka. That's so nice to hear. And did I happen to mention, just in case I didn't mention it before, that it's hotter than Zuko's armpits out here and I'm _tired of getting woken up out of the _**_one cool spot I've got?!_**"

"Good! Then this ought to be just the thing to—" Sokka's face screwed up in perplexity as her remark registered. "How would you know about Zuko's—"

"**_It's an expression!_**" Toph thundered. "**_Deal with it!_**"

Sokka momentarily tried to process why _he_ should have to deal with that image when _she_ was the one that brought it up—then he shook his head briskly. He opened the lid of his contraption and looked in. "Ah. Good. It's ready." He smiled at Toph. "Here. Taste this."

Now Toph shared in the perplexity. "Taste _what?_"

"This. The stuff I made." He dipped a mixing stick into the bucket, then held it out to Toph. "Here."

"What _is_ it?"

"The man called it '_ai screme_' Must be a Fire Nation regional thing or something."

Toph snorted in spite of herself. "_Eye-scream?_" she blurted out. "You expect me to eat something that makes my eyes scream? Look, just because _you_ lick cave walls and drink cactus juice—"

"Oh, here." Sokka jammed the stick into her open mouth.

The entire sensation stopped her cold.

Her automatic response to Sokka shoving something in her mouth was to rocklaunch him back to the Earth Kingdom, but the stuff Sokka had stuck in there was... cold... and soft... and sweet... and had this incredibly creamy feeling to it. She couldn't believe her mouth. Against the heat of the day, this was like a dip in cool water.

She sat down on the ground. Hard.

Sokka smiled. "You see?"

Her face was blank in wonder. "What _is_ this?"

"Like I said, they call it _ai screme_. It does feel a bit like _akutaq_, actually. I'm kinda surprised."

The blankness didn't last long. Toph folded her arms and frowned. "Okay, Tastebender, you got me. What is _akutaq_?"

"It's something we make in the Southern Water Tribe. The Northern Tribe makes it too—but they get a bit more fancy with it. We take animal fat and mix it with all kinds of berries. Sugar, too, sometimes. Tastes pretty good."

"Animal fat? Berries and _animal fat?!_ Blech!"

Sokka poked her in the chest. "Hey, don't knock it til you try it! It tastes pretty good! I can't live off of just blubbered seal jerky alone, you know."

Toph smirked. "Says you, blubberbutt."

"Hey!" Sokka playfully gave her shoulder a shove.

Toph swiped Sokka's tasting stick out of his hand and dipped it back into the bucket for more. "So how'd you make this stuff? You can't chill anything out here."

Sokka grinned. "Actually you can. The man said the machine uses ice... and believe it or not, they actually have a machine that _makes ice_."

"Well, _you_ don't have an ice-making machine," she replied tartly.

Sokka grinned even wider. "Yeah. But _I_ have _Katara_."

Her eyebrows went up. "Good move. Gonna cost ya, though. You're gonna have to be nice to her for a _long_ time."

He waved dismissively. "Nah, I can sweet talk her. I won't have to. And if it doesn't work..." Sokka smiled and gestured. "She doesn't get any of this."

She laughed. "Yeah. Good luck with that!"

Sokka grabbed another clean stick, and together they sampled his creation. "So what else did you use?" Toph asked. "This doesn't feel like a bunch of fat."

"It isn't," Sokka agreed. "He didn't have that in the formula."

Toph made a no-look point at Sokka with her stick. "The guy who sold you this thing?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. So what does he use?"

"It was pretty simple, actually, and kinda makes sense when you think about it. He uses cream from a cowhippo's milk, some sugar, and salt-a little bit for the _ai screme_, and a _lot_ for the ice around it. Put the cream and sugar in the mixing pot, put the ice around it, crank the pot now and then, wait a while, deal with angry Earthbenders," he poked her again, "and there it is." He spread his arms wide.

Toph licked a bit more of Sokka's experiment off the mixing stick and pondered. "Yeah... I guess this was worth getting woken up for."

"Well, I'm glad _you_ think so!" Sokka exclaimed. "Making this was a lot of work!"

"Okay, okay." Toph laughed. "Thank you for making your eye scream." She ran a finger along her stick, got a blob of the stuff on her finger, and _boinked_ it onto Sokka's nose.

"Hey!" He laughed.

She smirked. "Blubberbutt."


	25. Something Oogie This Way Comes

(grins a bit more than he should) XDD

Thanks, VividDreamer, Vee, RedKetchup, papyrus. I really enjoyed writing that one. My biggest challenge, I think was how the heck to get ice in the Fire Nation, believe it or not, but 1) I figured the Fire Nation was on the cusp of mechanical refrigeration, 2) they certainly had plenty of motivation to do it, and 3) I had Katara, and Katara is capable in plenty. :D

Glad you liked the eye scream. XD And as for Zuko's armpits… well. XD

This next one… well, KF has a Scary Fic contest for Halloween, and this plot bunny bit me just after lunch today. I thought I'd push myself to see if I could get it done in halfway decent shape before the end of the night (tonight's the deadline for submission), and I *think* it turned out okay…

I think. XD Please tell me how I did.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Something Oogie This Way Comes<em>**

"You didn't have to do that," said Aang as they walked along in the dark.

Katara turned to him, surprised. "Do what?"

"You know you didn't have to take Toph up on her bet. We were fine right where we were."

She laughed. "Aw, come on! Are you _scared?_"

Aang got a little indignant. "No, I'm not _scared!_ I'm just saying we didn't have to go walking _here_ tonight! I was fine right where I was, cuddling with you!"

Katara gave him a poke. "Oh, so _you_ were fine where you were, huh?"

"You mean you weren't?"

"Yeah, okay, I was. But I'm not going to let Toph challenge me like that and get away with it!"

Aang rolled his eyes. "Obviously."

That was where things had started. Katara and Aang had been cuddling together in the common room of the Gaang's house in Ba Sing Se, and Sokka had made some sort of comment about _oogies_, as usual. (Katara made a note to complain about that the next time Sokka and Suki were together.) She had told him to mind his own business, he had said something back, Toph had entered the discussion, and at some point someone had said something about being scared. Then Toph had thrown out, "Hey, Katara! Bet you and Aang can't walk through Lovers' Lane tonight without getting scared!"

"Pfffft! What?"

"You heard me."

Katara had folded her arms. "What's so scary about Lovers' Lane?"

Toph's face took on a cruel smirk. "It's said to be filled with the ghosts of people who died pining away for their true love. _Oooooooo-oooooooo!_"

Katara laughed. "What?" she scoffed. "You think that's scary? Aang and I can walk that any old day! _Or_ any old night!"

"I know." Toph's smirk got wider. "But can you walk it _tonight?_"

Katara took on a determined smile. She came closer to Toph "Yes. We. Can."

"Good! Then we'll see you later. Goodbye!" With that, Toph headed off to her room with a smile on her face.

Aang, who had sat there speechless during the entire exchange, stood and sighed. "I guess I'll get my cloak."

Lovers' Lane was a comfortable, winding walk that went through one of Ba Sing Se's parks, and true to its name, a lot of couples found it very romantic. By day its trees shaded the path; by night, cleverly-crafted lanterns guided the way through.

Tonight, someone had forgotten to light the lamps.

What in daylight were weeping willows and majestic oaks were now grasping arms and skeletal fingers. Flowery bushes became thickets that _whished_ in the wind.

Katara and Aang strolled through arm in arm, unconcerned. Well... not completely.

"Doesn't that bother you at all?" Aang asked.

"So what? Toph probably tipped somebody not to light the lanterns tonight." Katara shrugged. "Big deal."

He gave her skeptical eyebrow and a smile. "So you're not scared at all, huh?"

"Oh, _yes._" She clutched onto his arm with both hands. "I'm _really_ frightened!" She laughed, and he joined in. They hugged.

Then something howled.

They separated, more surprised than startled. Aang looked up. "I didn't know there were wolves in Ba Sing Se."

"There aren't." Another howl. Closer. "Maybe some... coyote dogs."

"I guess. Let's keep walking."

"Good idea."

The path led deeper into the park, winding its way through what would have been flower-filled gardens and graceful fountains. At night, it was merely empty space, and dark. And open. Out in the open.

An odd keening sound welled up on the left, rising and falling, rising and falling very quickly as it passed overhead... and then faded. They both looked up, tracking the sound... but seeing nothing. It swelled up again, again from the left, _whis whis whis whis whis whis _**_whis whis whis whis _**_whis whis whis whis whis..._

Not startled, but not as confident as before, Katara looked around as she walked. "Any idea what that was?"

Aang shook his head. "No. No idea at all." He was looking around too now. "I don't like being in the open like this, either. Maybe we should go back."

"What? And lose Toph's bet? You're kidding, right? Over a little whining noise? Come on, Aang." She took his hand and picked up the pace. "We'll just walk faster, that's all."

"All right..."

The path narrowed up ahead; trees and vines hung over the path, creating a tunnel of leaves. It looked like a maw at night.

That didn't bother Katara. She strode ahead boldly into the passage, Aang right behind. Then the ground bucked, violently. They were thrown to their hands and knees.

"**_Stop!_**"

Katara and Aang both looked around, alarmed, for where the voice came from.

"_You... _**_dare_**_ come to this place tonight!_" The voice was shrill, disembodied. "_Go back! You are not wanted here!_"

Aang figured this was his department. He raised his hands. "Spirit of this place, listen to me! Let me explai—"

He tried to stand, but again the ground shuddered and knocked him down. "_Go _**_back!_**_ You are not wanted here! Go _**_back!_**"

"But I—"

"**_Leeeeaaaave_**_ this plaaaaaace! _**_Go baaaaaaaaack!_**" Again the ground heaved and tossed them.

Almost flat on the ground, Katara turned to Aang. "Why won't they listen?" she whispered.

"I don't know!" he whispered back. "I don't feel them at all!"

"Maybe if I try." She got to her knees and pushed up from there. "O spirits, please listen to me. Please let us through to the other side. I agree that we shouldn't be here this late at night—"

"**_Fool!_**" The ground bucked again "_What do we care for your reasons? You shouldn't be here! _**_Leaaave!_**" A long roar came from the ground. Then it stopped.

"Katara!" Aang whispered from his knees. "It's not a spirit! It's an Earthbender!"

"A what?" Katara whispered back.

"An Earthbender! I feel it! I know what to do. Can you get water from someplace?"

Katara looked around. She heard a fountain, but it was far away, back at the clearing. Too far. She did feel water nearby, though... in the trees and the bushes. "Yes," she whispered.

"Okay. Get ready. One..."

"Two..."

"_Three!_"

Aang blew himself off the ground with a powerful gust of air and spun his hands to create an airball. Katara leapt up and swung her arm as well, _pulling_ the water out of the trees and exploding it out of the bark.

"**_No! STOP!_**"

An Earth current went under Aang; it narrowly missed Katara. Now off the ground, Aang spun himself end for end, kicking an airblast downrange and doing a handstand on his airball. With his free hand he then spun an air vortex down the same line. Katara for her part had zeroed in on the speaker and _hurled_ her water whip at her target. She jerked her hand back. The water whip broke into several wedges then hardened into a brace of ice spikes.

_Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!_

Aang kept his air funnel going but let his airball dissipate, coming back to his feet. The funnel went toward where he had kicked before, turning into a small tornado just short of the tree branches... and stuck in the top of the funnel was Toph.

Over on the other side, Sokka was glaring back at Katara, pinned to a tree. "Did you have to use spikes?"

Katara stared at him in disbelief, then broke into peals of laughter. Aang was laughing too on seeing who he had caught.

Toph folded her arms. "Yeah, yeah, you caught me. Congratulations. I'm the big bad spirit. _Whoooooo-oooooo._"

Aang let Toph down shortly thereafter (figuring that leaving her there longer would only make future retribution worse) and Katara let the ice melt away, freeing Sokka. There was some good-natured ribbing about the whole thing and a request from Sokka to keep the oogies down to a dull roar in future, which Katara noted but promised to do nothing of the kind. Toph and Sokka started to head back to the Gaang's house, but Katara and Aang... didn't.

"What?" said Sokka, gesturing at the dark. "You wanna stay out here?"

"Sure. We still have to finish our walk." Katara threaded her arm through Aang's. "Remember?"

"Augh! Oogies!" Sokka waved away at her. "Keep it out here away from the house, will ya?"

Aang smiled. "We'll try, Sokka."

"Yes. We'll try." Katara turned Aang's face toward hers and gave him a big smooch.

"_Eeeeeeeewwww_. Come on, Sokka." Toph turned for home. "Let's leave these lovebirds to their lovebirding."

"Yeah. Try not to do anything to embarrass us." Sokka followed, draping his arm over Toph's shoulders.

Katara watched them go, then turned back to Aang. "So? Shall we continue our walk?"

"Just a minute. I want to check something." Aang want over to one of the lanterns. He examined it, then facepalmed. "I wish I'd thought of this before. This lamp still has some oil in it." He Firebent a small flame to the wick of the lamp and lit it.

Katara laughed. "You goof! You mean you could have lit the lamps as we went?"

He shrugged. "Hey, like I said, I just thought of this. At least we can light the lamps as we go _now_." He offered his arm gallantly. "Care to join me?"

"I'll be glad to." She took his arm, and they made off down the path.

A moment later she laid her other hand on his arm. "I should have mentioned this before, too."

"What's that?"

She smiled warmly. "I _was_ getting a little scared before, but I wasn't really frightened. Not with you there."

He stopped walking and beamed at her. Together they exchanged a kiss... then they continued down the lane.


	26. The Snows of Yester-Year

Thanks, papyrus, VividDreamer, Jokermask! And Happy (belated) Halloween, papyrus! XD

This next one I put out on KF on July of 2010 for the Kataang Festival that year. I wrote it just before I started serious work on _Second Genesis_, and I kinda had this in mind for the segment when the Gaang was at the South Pole. So, to honor the birthday of a certain friend of mine... here we are. XD Hope you like it.

Thanks again for reading, everybody.

* * *

><p><strong><em>The Snows of Yester-Year<em>**

The snowstorm came in from the sea and battered the Southern Water Tribe village. Sheets of snow railed against the igloos, but did little more than build up on them. This was home to the Southern Water Tribe. They knew how to build their homes.

Inside it was dark, but warm. Furs, brown, blue-gray, black, and white, hung from the walls of snow and were laid flat on the floor. A single clay oil lamp in the middle of the room gave enough light to see by.

Aang heard the whistle of the storm outside. He was sitting up in his bedding of blankets and furs. "Wow..." he said quietly. "That's some blizzard out there."

"Yes, it is." Katara looked over at him, the yellow-orange light playing over her face. She too kept her voice down. "It might go on for a few days. Depending on how big it is."

"A few _days..._ I hope Appa will be all right."

"He'll be fine." Katara smiled. "We made him a big enough snow cave... and he has plenty of hay..."

Aang looked at the wall toward Appa's snow cave, then lowered his head, smiling sheepishly. "Yeah, you're right. He'll probably just catch up on his sleep."

Katara nodded. "That's what we do. There's no point in fighting the storm."

Momo, curled up and warm, raised his head and chittered agreement.

Aang tilted his head. "So you just stay inside and sleep all day?"

Katara chuckled. "Well, you _could_ go outside and try to do something..."

Aang remembered moving back to their igloo earlier from outside and having to shake snow out of his ears. He made a face. "No thanks."

She laughed. "I thought you'd say that."

The lamp sputtered and the light dimmed. Katara got up and checked the lamp, then fetched a skin full of oil and refilled it. Aang watched the interesting shadows that the lamplight made... and he watched Katara.

Katara grew thoughtful. "Gran-Gran did tell us stories, though... stories that her grandmother told her." She settled back into bed. "She said that once when Avatar Kuruk was here, he battled a blizzard, all by himself. He challenged some of the other Waterbenders to do it, too."

Aang grew wide-eyed. "Did they?"

She nodded. "Yeah, they did. They didn't... do so well. Even together."

Aang smiled and shook his head. "Yeah, that's Avatar Kuruk. Always showing off. He would do something like that." He looked toward the entrance. "I wonder if I could do that..."

She smiled. "Gran-Gran also said that long after that, young male Waterbenders would go out and try and battle the storms, just like he did. Must be some guy thing."

"Yeah, must be. I guess it—hey!" He glared at Katara, who laughed.

The wind whistled against the igloo for a bit.

"Of course... there are times when you have to go out, and away from the village. Dad did that once, when I was a little girl. He had to go hunting. And then a walrusbear found _him_."

"Oh, no." Aang got wide-eyed again. "What did he do?"

"He hid in a snowdrift. He had on his white furs because he was hunting, so he blended in. Then he got behind the walrusbear... and he _jabbed_ it with his spear!"

"He killed it?"

"No... walrusbears are too big to kill on your own. That's what Dad says. But the walrusbear was so startled, it jumped-and then it fell through the ice. And Dad ran away from the hole as fast as he could."

Aang laughed.

"Of course... we were kids when he told us that, so I don't know if it _really_ happened that way—the walrusbear jumping and breaking a hole in the ice." Katara smiled.

He shrugged. "It's still a nice story."

"Still, most of the time... we stay inside. It's easier to keep warm that way."

"Yeah... I guess that makes sense." Aang laid back down. "It's pretty dark in here anyway."

"Yeah..." Katara laid back down too. "Can't see very much."

They laid there for a while, listening to the wind.

Then a small smile grew on Aang's face. His eyes wandered over to Katara... then back up to the ceiling.

"Of course... I understand how important it is to keep warm."

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"I think it's a very important thing... in a cold place like this."

Katara looked slightly quizzical. "Yes... it's hard to warm up again, once you get cold."

"I mean... you're over there, keeping warm, and... I'm over here, keeping warm..."

Then a small smile appeared on Katara's face. "And... it probably would be easier if we... tried to keep warm, together..."

"Yes, it... probably would be easier..."

They quietly shuffled their furs together.

And snuggled.

Aang grinned. "I mean... if you're trying to keep warm..."

Katara did too. "Then keeping warm together is a _lot_ easier..."

Then there was a very theatrical clearing of the throat.

"I would remind my sister _and_ the Avatar that they are _not alone_ in this igloo..."

"Yeah! It's hard for somebody to get some sleep around here!"

Katara sat bolt-upright and glared. "Oh, hush! You and Toph are doing the exact same thing!"

Sokka's voice went up an octave. "I _am not!_ -I mean-we. _We_ are not."

He looked over at Toph. "...Are you?" Toph frowned, and shuffled her sleeping furs an obligatory few inches away.

Katara laid back down and snuggled into Aang. "Now, where were we?"

Aang smiled. "I think we were talking about keeping warm."

"Yes. Yes we were." Katara smiled... and closed her eyes. Aang kissed her on the forehead softly... and did the same.

They passed the rest of the storm that way... quite warmly.


	27. After

Thanks, VividDreamer, papyrus. :D I really enjoyed writing that little bit of fluff. Can't you tell? XD

This next one has been on my idea list for a while... and understandably, I hadn't planned on writing it for a long time. KF is closing its doors tomorrow, so… I felt the time had come.

Hope you like the story. And thanks again, everybody.

* * *

><p><strong><em>After<em>**

When you're young, you talk about doing things forever—you'll love somebody forever, you'll always be friends with someone, you'll never speak to that so-and-so again...

As you get older, you learn how long forever is.

From Air Temple Island, Katara looked up at the statue of Aang in Republic City Harbor and thought about that... in tears.

_Forever is a very long time,_ her father Hakoda had said. Certainly he had known, with his wife Kya gone for years before he himself passed away. Now Katara herself knew.

The statue had been something of an inside joke between Katara and Aang. Certainly neither of them had wanted it, but Zuko had insisted on putting it there, this massive, bronze _thing_ in the middle of Republic City Harbor, holding a staff with a huge Air Nomad symbol on it with his clothing ruffled by a heroic breeze and a face... that had no expression at all.

That was the biggest laugh of all. Aang had laughed, Aang had stormed, Aang had cried with joy at the birth of his children, raged (in private) at the dunderheads who couldn't get along, and now here his statue was, showing nothing. Not even a small smile. It was as if the statue was ready to face Koh. It was silly. And a twelve-year-old version of Aang, not the man he'd become. Really?

They had honestly wondered if it was a practical joke of Zuko's.

They... now she.

Fifty years.

She left the railing and went back to her room.

Fifty years of life together, married and not, adventures and children (adventures in themselves), thousands of memories, step by step, side by side, together. And now... not.

All his stuff was all around, all his things. A lot of it, one of each thing, was being carted away and treated with reverence by some newly appointed group of people from Republic City who were going to archive it, preserve it, keep it for the generations to come.

"I don't think I'd want _my_ underwear in a museum," Sokka had said.

"_Your underwear_ is an _atrocity_, Sokka," cracked Toph. "They'd burn it the first chance they could—_outside_ the city limits!"

"And how do _you_ know about Sokka's underwear?" Zuko had asked wryly.

Sokka had awkwardly cleared his throat. "Well, I, er... um—"

Toph had been tempted to let Sokka stumble on, but out of mercy she had interjected. "Hey. _How_ many months on the run from your Firebenders, Hotboy, and you think I don't know about his underwear? _And_ his socks? They're even worse."

Katara had broken out laughing in spite of herself. Toph had waved a hand in front of her face. "You smell a lot of things you don't want to when you're in the field."

Katara had wiped away her tears, still laughing. "You got that right!"

She chuckled even now at the memory.

They had all come when they heard the news. Zuko and Mai. Ty Lee, too, along with Suki and what Kyoshi Warriors that could. Sokka, of course. Teo and his children, Haru and his. Toph and Lin—but of course they came from the City itself, hard at work maintaining it... and the legacy.

Aang's legacy. Now somewhere far to the south, waiting to manifest itself.

The strangest thing was that there had been plenty of warning, but no idea why. Aang was older, of course, but in excellent condition. There was no reason he shouldn't have lived for many more healthy years. Then he started to... fade, for lack of a better way to put it.

They had all looked down at the boy, now the man, who had brought them all together from all over the world: the Warrior... the Prince... the Waterbender... the Earthbender. Time had written the story of their travels and travails on their faces in wrinkles, laugh lines, graying and receding hair, just as it had on the face of the Avatar, now at rest.

The vision faded, and Katara looked at her empty bed.

Empty.

She turned away and walked the halls, tears in her eyes.

There were mementos, too, of the places they had been, things they had done: Aang's sky bison whistle... a printed program from that _ridiculous_ play on Ember Island... dried flowers from their wedding. A dried and pressed panda lily from their reunion trip to Aunt Wu's; they had found that Meng had found herself a jugeared galoot and they couldn't be happier together. Katara and Aang had wished them every happiness.

Some things had no souvenir to take away, of course, like the battles they had fought together, side by side... his fire following her water, or earth, or air, depending on what they needed. The time they had stepped into a storm at sea and magnified it into a typhoon to disperse an opposing army.

The time they had tried to do that as teenagers, just for the fun of it, and gotten themselves caught in a storm they couldn't control. Aang had Earthbent them into a shelter underground in a hurry, and there they had giggled themselves silly.

The candelit baths together. (The bending had gotten a little ridiculous.)

The skydiving together... Katara gaining confidence in each dive—not lacking in confidence that Aang would catch her, just the idea of jumping off of a perfectly good sky bison...

Katara slowly getting the knack of using her own glider on some of those trips, flying side by side with her husband, clouds flying by like vapory satin... swimming through the air, in a sense.

The time Katara had found an underwater cave deep in Republic City Harbor, with its own pocket of air. Together she and Aang had enlarged it and made it their own secret hideaway for times when they didn't want to deal with the outside world.

The time young Kya had secretly followed them down there when she was old enough, her own Waterbending skills now flowering, was discovered at an awkward moment... and gotten a hide-blistering of a scolding from a thoroughly embarrassed Katara. Something that grown Kya now brought up at each and every anniversary of theirs.

That now only one of them was there to celebrate...

Katara's hands closed on Aang's sky bison whistle. Something of his that had touched his lips...

She kissed it... and now the tears flowed in earnest. She sank to her knees.

The memories came faster now. The birth of Kya, their long-expected first-born. Bumi, wild almost from the moment he first drew breath. Tenzin, an Airbender at long last. Lin, born to Toph, a mark of Toph's transformation from rogue and rabblerouser to teacher and defender... mother. The rise of Republic City from Fire Nation colony to the gleaming spired-capital of a brand new country. The terrifying Yakone incident. The deaths of Katara's grandmother, then her father. Her children, _their_ children, grown and strong, leading their own lives. The peace.

The fading.

The trickling fear-filled realization of what it meant. Aang's sudden desperate drive to put things in place before...

The passing.

Like two trees twined together, each growing from, each growing with the other, and then... one dissolved into dust, leaving the other standing alone.

They had each gone their own ways after the funeral: Sokka, back to administrating the City; Toph, back to policing it; Zuko, back to running his own country... leaving Katara with Aang's belongings. Memories, and his belongings. Almost as if she were entombed instead of him, left now for all time with... this. Hollow, thin, echo-y remembrances of him, memories that _were_... and now were no more. Razor sharp reminders that Aang _was no more._

Katara sobbed, almost wailing in her emptiness.

It was so tempting to let go... to let go and follow. Even though Katara knew that her children loved her, that so many loved her, to do this alone...

To do this without him...

To know she could never say good night to him again, to hold him, to feel him there, to listen to his latest plans and hear him complain about his latest problems... to have to wait until _after_ this life to say _anything_ to him again...

To not hear his voice til then... his happy, hope-filled laugh...

To have it all be over... until it all _was_ over, for her...

Done.

She sobbed in the growing darkness.

The evening came and the light faded away, replaced the soothing dark of night. It was a mercy of sorts. Katara couldn't see anything of Aang's anymore, or hers; everything had all gone black and gray. There was no light.

Except...

Katara didn't know why she looked, but she did. Things were completely dark, but... not. She had no idea why. There _was_ light, but... not.

Her brow furrowed on her tear-stained face. Had she passed away too?

She pinched herself. Pain. No, she was still here. Still where she was.

No one had come in to light anything, there weren't any lights in the hall, so... why...?

She turned, slowly, looking around.

The light—the not-darkness—grew as she turned. It was coming from a place in the room where she knew there were no lamps, no candles, so she couldn't fathom why—

Then she saw a man standing there, glowing, a light blue radiance all around him.

She tumbled backwards and cried in alarm.

The man came closer, hands out stretched, and she shrank from this strange, glowing...

Familiar...

Her eyes widened in disbelief as his face came into focus. He was smiling, his lips parted as he said... nothing she could hear, but she knew her name when she saw it spoken.

"**_Aang?_**"

He nodded, grinning.

She sat back. "Aang? Aang, how...?"

He spoke, trying to explain, but she couldn't hear a sound. She remained motionless, frozen.

He stopped speaking. He considered... then he knelt down and reached out to touch her.

She shrank from his touch.

Frowning through his smile, he gestured to her. That she understood. _Come on. It's me. What would I do to you?_

Not entirely convinced, she stayed where she was... but she let him come closer.

He touched her.

She remembered.

She remembered seeing Aang's spirit fly back to his body at the North Pole, when Zhao came to attack the Northern Water Tribe. She remembered the other times in her life, their life, when _she could see him_, even though he wasn't there in the flesh.

How now she was seeing him.

He withdrew... and now she could see how he had returned to his middle age, full in his prime and strength. The Avatar Zuko _should_ have memorialized in the harbor.

She laughed slightly. "Aang. Aang, it _is_ you."

Another smiling frown. _Of course._

She lunged forward, wanting to hug him, wanting to hold him—but found herself in the middle of light instead, light, and no substance. He drew back a little, sheepish, apologetic, a slight shrug in his shoulders. She drew back a little too, feeling silly. "Yes. Yes, I guess... I can't do that." She looked into his eyes. "Still... can you stay?"

He grinned broadly.

He spoke slowly, enunciating in silence. _For as long as you want. Unless I have to be elsewhere. I will be here._

She laid her hands on his glowing shoulders. He did the same with hers. They cried. Together, they cried.

But happily. Forever.

Together. Forever.


	28. Short Shorts

Thanks, Papyrus, VividDreamer. :D I will admit, I was pulling out every organ stop I could on that one. (I'll also admit I _was_ aiming to make an echo of those particular words…) He _will_ always be with her, I think. If he has anything to say about it.

This next one I wrote, um… in a less serious tone. Hope you like this one too. And thanks again for reading, everybody.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Short Shorts<em>**

Sokka was up in the early morning in the winter at the Fire Palace. The Gaang was there as guests of the Fire Lord. He was up and no one else was, so he thought he'd explore.

He pondered aesthetically at the Fire Nation architecture, made faces at the Fire Lords in their grand ceiling-to-floor tapestries, and thought it was funny how in a place called the Fire Nation, the whole building was so dark. He was going to have to pull Zuko's leg about that.

The funny thing was that was exactly who Sokka came upon next. He found Zuko practicing his Lightningbending—or trying to.

The Fire Lord was clad in a loose, tan-colored tunic and pants, and he stood in a room with a sand floor and a reinforced, fire-blackened wall at one end. Zuko stood stock still, hands at mid-level, centering himself. He raised a hand to shoulder level and scooped it down, gathering charge. Then the other hand went high and came down, gathering more. He brought his brought his fingertips together, centered, and pointed—and the air exploded. Zuko was blown off his feet.

Sokka jerked way from the doorway. He looked over at Zuko, concerned.

Zuko was decidedly less sanguine about it. He got back to his feet, dusted himself off, and centered himself. Again one hand went to shoulder level and came down, again the other hand did the same. Zuko brought them together, centered, pointed—_boom._ Another explosion. And more floor time for Zuko.

Sokka stood there and watched, his head tilted with a frown on his face.

This went on for a while. Zuko labored on, experimenting with different facets of what he was doing—changing his starting positions, moving slower, concentrating more, moving faster with greater force, greater speed—but he couldn't change the results. The only progress he was making was in how grubby he was becoming.

Sokka shook his head. He walked away—then shocked his hand on some of the metal in the doorframe. "Ow!" He shook his hand a little. _Blasted dry weather_—

Then he stopped. He looked at his hand, then at Zuko, still practicing… then at his hand again, then again at Zuko. A sly smile came to his face.

He waited for Zuko to get in range, which wasn't going to take long, given all the explosions. He shuffled his feet, building up a charge of his own, waited until Zuko was concentrating once again on gathering the lightning…

Then Sokka made a light-footed dash, came up behind Zuko, and touched him on the ear.

_Zap._

Zuko whirled around in response, hitting Sokka's midsection. That unfortunately completed the circuit, and after a moment of sizzling shock…

**_BOOM._**

Both Zuko and Sokka were knocked flat on their backs. Painfully they levered themselves up onto their elbows.

Zuko glared at Sokka. "Idiot."

Sokka just closed his eyes and grinned at him.


	29. The Knowledge Seekers

Thanks, Irako, papyrus! I think Sokka mayyyyyybe should have put a little more thought into that-but I sure enjoyed writing it when he didn't. XD

This next one came to me when I was rewatching "The Library", ATLA episode #210. It occurred to me that a certain somebody's fate hadn't been... addressed, exactly, so I thought I would see what happened.

Let's see what happens. XD Thanks again for reading, everybody.

* * *

><p><em><span><strong>The Knowledge Seekers<strong>_

Wan Shi Tong awoke in the spire tower of his Library. He looked around quickly, owl's head snapping around on his snake-like neck. The Avatar and his friends were long gone, and the windows at the top of the spire were dark. The Library was now fully underground.

He winced, twitching his feathers; looking around quickly hadn't been such a good idea. Whoever had gotten the drop on him had given him a headache in the process, and whipping his head around looking for the Avatar had not made it any better.

He walked down out of the spire, shaking his feathers back into place. _At least now my Library is protected from the likes of them._

He remembered all too well the last such intruder—that Fire Nation officer who had weaseled his way in, found what he wanted, and then had destroyed most of his collection from the Fire Nation, attempting to prevent others from doing the very thing he was. Wan Shi Tong knew that Fire Nation defiler had met an appropriate fate, but his Library had still paid the price. Now this group, the Avatar among them, sought something just as that Fire Nation wretch had, anything to give them an upper hand against their enemies.

_The Avatar_.

_I don't care that he's still a child—he should learn better manners_. _To lie about his intentions…_

He filed that away for later thought.

There was one problem with what Wan Shi Tong had done, of course; if he wanted to continue doing what he loved best, gathering knowledge from the world, he had just made that task more difficult. His Knowledge Seekers could tunnel back above ground and come back the same way, but anyone finding the tunnels could find his Library. That wasn't acceptable; it would require more thought. _Perhaps I should ask the badgermoles. They may have a solution—_

He stopped walking. Someone was still here, someone from the surface.

Someone from the Avatar's party.

He raised his head. "You can continue to hide if you want. I will eventually find you."

No response.

Typical. He smiled inside his mind. _Mortals. They think silence will protect them._

He swooped around the corner in a fury of movement to find—a man in the floor, surrounded by piles of books. "Very convenient," he said. "Normally my prey doesn't present itself so easily." He swooped in to strike.

Still seated on the floor, the man threw up his hands. "O great spirit, _please_ give me more time!" Wan Shi Tong broke off his attack, amused. _This_ was how things usually went. "I willingly cede my life to you—just give me time to read a bit more!"

"_Why_ should I do such a thing? Your fellows have fled, leaving you behind—and now _you_ beg for more time, to succeed where they failed!"

"_No_, great spirit!" The man prostrated himself. "I have never found a collection of books such as this—such a mountain of knowledge! I have sought your Library for many years. I willingly give up my life. Just give me the chance to read a bit more! To learn a bit more!"

Wan Shi Tong's eyes, narrowed. "What do you seek? Knowledge, you say? To overcome? To destroy? To learn best how to betray?"

"_No_, Great One!" The man lifted up his face. "I seek knowledge for knowledge's sake, just for the chance to learn more! And your Library here has knowledge such as I have never seen, even in the greatest of the world's libraries! In Ba Sing Se itself!"

"When you have lived for thousands of years, your library should be more than average." Wan Shi Tong retracted his neck back into his body, returning to his usual oversize owl form. "I question why I should believe you, given how the others who were with you behaved. _They_ lied. _They_ stole. Why should I expect better from you?"

"Because _they_ didn't stay. _I_ did _I_ wanted to." The man came up to his knees, smiling. "This place is the fulfillment of dreams for me. I could spend a lifetime here, reading about anything I wanted to know. Everything I wanted to know! The world's knowledge, all here, in one place! It's like a dream come true." The man smiled beatifically. "Why would I ever leave?"

"Indeed. Though the question you should be asking yourself is, 'Why would I ever let you stay?'"

"Oh, please, great spirit, let me stay. I have nothing to give you to prove what I say, but I would do anything to be able to. Anything!"

"Anything." Wan Shi Tong knew what he was hearing from the man; the man _was_ speaking the truth. It presented opportunities. "You would do anything at all to be able to stay here."

"Yes." The man didn't hesitate, even knowing what could happen by saying that. "I really would."

Wan Shi Tong pondered another moment—for show—then turned to the man. "Very well. I will let you stay here—on one condition."

"Yes?"

"You must gather knowledge for _me_—when I ask you to do so."

After a moment's consideration, the man went back prostrate again. "I willingly do so."

Wan Shi Tong swept his right wing over the man—the man vanished. He then swept over the spot with his left wing… and in the man's place was a foxlike Knowledge Seeker, whose eyes held the same keenness that the man's did, a moment ago.

"I will have work for you shortly." Wan Shi Tong turned away. "In the meantime… enjoy the library."

The Knowledge Seeker nodded, and settled back to reading where he was before. Wan Shi Tong went on his way, pleased with himself. _It isn't often I have a chance to add to _that _collection._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Something tells me that Professor Zei wouldn't mind too much. XD


	30. Armor, Man

Thanks, Irako, papyrus. :D Not to get _too_ creepy about it, but I feel that Wan Shi Tong's library draws in people like Professor Zei like moths to a flame, and when they find they _can't_ leave, well… Although I have a feeling that I'll be like my mother-in-law when I retire and check out a lot of books from _our_ local library. I'm not quite a candidate for Wan Shi Tong as such, but you know.

This next one I've had in mind for a while and finally put together recently… although I suppose I could have waited until another metallic superhero graces movie screens again. So without further ado or intro, here we go.

And this one's for you, Vee. XD

* * *

><p><strong><em><span>Armor, Man<span>_**

"So I got to thinking…" Sokka said as he and Toph made their way through the markets of Yu Dao.

Toph smirked. "Uh-oh…"

Sokka turned. "What?"

Toph kept smiling. "Oh, nothing. Just saying…"

Sokka put his hands on his hips—while still walking. "Just saying what?"

"Sokka, the last time you 'got to thinking', you thought a flying machine was a great idea. You know—the same one that flew right into City Hall? And then your 'automatic shrimp gatherer' gathered up all the nets in the harbor and shredded 'em _in the harbor_. And then that 'water-breathing dragon' of yours—"

"All right, all right! I will admit that _some_ of my ideas didn't turn out the way I expected."

Toph snorted. "Some?"

"All right, a lot of 'em! But ya gotta keep trying. And I'm not the only one who thinks that—the Mechanist wouldn't have made that submarine work otherwise."

"Yeah. And I think The Duke still thinks it was a great idea to lend me his helmet on that trip, too."

Sokka didn't reply to that; he turned aside at the nearest booth and examined some fabric there, his face not quite… blank of expression.

Toph walked on a step—just one—before realizing that Sokka had stopped walking. It took a moment in the bustle of the marketplace, but she made a guess as to where he was and played it out. She wasn't too far off. "So, you were saying…?"

Sokka let the silence last a moment longer, then spoke— but not before glaring at her. He knew she couldn't see it, but it made him feel better. "_I was thinking_ about that suit of armor you made on board the airship. You know, when we took out their air fleet?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Toph came over closer to him.

"I was thinking it was pretty handy. Is there any way you could… throw up a suit of armor around me, if you had the chance?"

"Sure I could. _If_ we were standing around a lot of metal." Sokka moved on from the weaver's stand, and Toph joined him. "But I don't think it would do you much good, though."

"Why not?"

"I was constantly bending the armor I made for myself. I don't know if you noticed. It helped that the stuff was touching me all the time, so I didn't have to concentrate that much. But if I bent up that armor around you, you wouldn't be able to move." Toph smirked. "You'd be Sokka-in-a-can."

"Okay, okay, but what if you did? Could you put joints in it or something? So I could bend at the knees and arms?"

Toph caught a whiff of some chicken pig curry at a vendor's food stand and inhaled deeply. "Mmmm… we're gonna have to try that place."

Sokka took a couple of sniffs and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, fine, we'll come back for lunch. But could you?"

"Could I what?"

"Put joints in the armor so I could move."

"Well, it's a bit more work, but sure." Another Toph smirk. "You _sure_ you don't wanna be Sokka-in-a-can?"

Sokka folded his arms. "Gee, I dunno. Be a sitting goose duck on the battlefield. Sure…"

"Hey, I'm just sayin'…"

"Yeah. Keep sayin'." Sokka gave her a quick poke, and almost got out of the way of her replying backhand.

They moved on to the farmers' section of the market. One of the merchants took a look, saw the two of them, and made a convulsive grab for his cabbages. He glared at them as they went past.

"You know, though," said Toph, "if you're going to do that, you might as well get it made beforehand." She scratched her nose. "I could make those joints on the fly—I mean, I'm _good_—but if I get one of those joints in the wrong place, it's gonna be useless. If your knee joint doesn't fit where your knee is, you're stuck."

"Yeah, that's true. Still, it'd be really cool if that metal just flew up off the battlefield and became armor for me."

Toph smirked. "I know."

They made their way into another section—either housewares or armaments, Toph thought, from all the clanging. She couldn't tell.

Then Sokka's eyes lit up. "Well, if you're going to do _that_…"

Toph grinned. "Uh-oh…"

Sokka frowned. "Hey, what's with the verbal eyeroll?"

"What?"

"I know you don't roll your eyes—you just rolled your eyes with your voice. I can tell."

"_What?_"

"You did! I heard it!"

Toph thought about continuing with the denials—her hands had already come up to her hips—but she decided to just smile instead. "Okay, Sokka, I _rolled my eyes with my voice._ You happy?"

"Yes." Sokka didn't miss a beat. "I want my ideas to be _heard_ and given honest consideration. Not eyerolled at."

"Okay, fine."

"Fine."

They made their way out of the metalware section, whatever it was. That was fine by Toph; all the racket made it hard to hear. She left the ball in Sokka's court.

Which Sokka eventually hit back. "So I was thinking that if you were going to make the armor beforehand, we could add some stuff to it."

"Such as?" she drawled.

"You know… weapons. Gadgets. Grappling hooks. Crossbows. Rock shooters. Maybe even big springs in the legs or glider's wings on the back."

Toph snorted. "Sokka, it sounds like you want a tank on your back."

"Yeah, sort of."

"So if you're gonna do that, why not make a tank?"

"Because…" Sokka wiggled his hands around. "Because somebody's already done that. The Fire Nation's done that. The Mechanist's done that. _I_ don't need to do it again. And besides—" Sokka stopped and faced her, and Toph stopped. "I want this to be just me, a suit of armor that _I_ can wear. A tank doesn't work."

"Yeah, I'll say." Toph walked on, and Sokka followed. "You know, though… you _could_ make it big enough for two."

"Big enough for two? Why?"

Toph shrugged. "_I_ could ride in that armor, along with you."

Sokka gave her a funny look. "Why would I do that?"

Another shrug from Toph. "It'd give you more options. _You_ can't Metalbend—_I can_. _I_ can't see—but _you can_. You see things I can't, tell me where they are, then I Metalbend things at 'em. Maybe right off the armor. Then we just bend _more_ metal off the battlefield to patch the holes."

Sokka brought his hand to his chin and considered. "Yeah, true…"

"And you wouldn't need springs or anything if you wanted to jump someplace. _I_ can do that, with my Earthbending."

"Yeah, you could…" Sokka slowed to a stop.

Toph stopped and threw out her arms. "Yeah, you could _what?_ It's brilliant!"

"Well, this was… kind of supposed to be _my_ armor, for one. The way you're putting it, it's just your armor that I'm riding in. It's not really mine. Everything you're talking about sounds great, it's just… not me. Not me doing it."

Toph's arms came down; her emotions were mixed. "Yeah…?"

"And thinking about other stuff… having two of us in the suit would be kind of awkward. I mean… I don't mind touching you or anything—"

"Well, _that's_ good."

"—but to Earthbend, don't you have to have your feet on the ground?

"Yeah. I do."

"So that means that you'd have to stand either in front of me or behind me, _or_ I'd have to ride on your back. I know you're strong, but I don't think you'd want me there."

Toph rather enjoyed the thought of any of those options, or all of them. But out loud she said, "What, I can't just put you on a seat behind me and let me do my thing?"

"Yeah, you could." Sokka folded his arms and smiled. "But it'd still be awkward. And I figure this armor's gonna be awkward enough."

"All right, all right, yeah, true." She smirked. "But I _still_ like the idea of you in a can."

He laughed. "I _bet_ you do."

They walked along a little further.

Toph wiped her nose to deal with an itch. "You know, you must really be into this idea."

"Yeah, I am. I've been thinking about it for a while." Sokka waited for Toph's response… and didn't get one. "Why?"

Toph pivoted, and made one of her no-look points back the way they came. "Because we just walked through Yu Dao's entire meat market, and you didn't say one word about it. _Or_ about any of the restaurants, except for that one curry stand."

Sokka followed Toph's point, saw the entirety of the meat market, and his jaw dropped slightly. "I… guess I did." He smiled. "Huh. Whaddaya know?"

"_I_ do, for one. And I also think we need to discuss your idea some more—over some bowls of curry from that stall we passed a while back."

The smile grew on Sokka's face. "Well, it does make sense to start a new design on a full stomach. Sound good?"

" 'Sound good'. _I_ suggested it!"

"Okay, then." They headed back the way they came. "Although I wonder… maybe later we _could_ design a tank—but it'd be like a suit of armor, standing up. And then we could put a steam engine in the back for power…"

They walked on.

"Sokka?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't push it."


	31. Into Your Work

Thanks, Irako! :D

Yeah, I figured Sokka would be the Tony of the bunch, sans the mechanical heart, of course. I also felt there might be times when Sokka would like to be "augmented" with armor and devices—might help him feel better for when the benders of the group do their stuff—and Mr. Stark's creations came to mind in spades. :D Thanks again.

This next one… might be on the edge of good taste, considering what the Dai Li did as a matter of course, but uh… hope I didn't cross over the line. XD Hope you all like it. Thanks again for reading, everybody.

* * *

><p><span><strong><em>Into Your Work<em>**

Long Feng sat at his desk in his office, the crystal fire in the fireplace casting a green glow about the room. He dipped his chop in red ink and stamped it on the bottom of the scroll he was reading. He set the scroll aside, then picked up another one, opened it, and examined the contents.

Two Dai Li agents entered the room and stood just inside the entrance.

He sensed their presence, but finished what he was doing before acknowledging them. They waited silently. When he was ready, he looked over their way.

"There's a problem with the lamp operator," one of them said. "You need to come see for yourself."

Long Feng frowned.

"Why do I need to investigate the lamp operator's problem myself? What is the problem?"

"I'm sorry," said the agent. "He thinks he's… you have to see for yourself."

He looked at them.

They looked at him.

Such was the nature of their relationship that they would tell him what he needed to deal with a situation, along with any additional information he asked for, without fear. Their telling him nothing more told him they had nothing more to provide.

Long Feng's brow furrowed.

He stood. "Very well. Let's see what the lamp operator is having trouble with." Which, the agents knew, probably meant trouble for the lamp operator one way or another.

They left for the lamp room.

Not that there were many problems, usually; generally the agents just needed direction. They were fairly self-sufficient when it came to decision-making, unless they felt something required greater attention than they could provide. That was when he would become involved.

He tried to be subtle in his actions; subtlety required less effort to keep things quiet.

The Dai Li liked quiet in Ba Sing Se.

They reached the lamp room, the place where more difficult subjects were… convinced of what the Dai Li was trying to tell them. Two agents were there to the side, their expressions incongruously light-hearted. The third, the lamp operator, had a glassy stare and a fixed smile.

Dai Li turned to the lamp operator. "It's come to my attention that you have having… problems."

"Problems?" the man answered. "Not at all, sir. Everything is under control."

His voice seemed odd, stilted. "That is good to hear," Long Feng said, keeping his voice low, "but that's not what I have been told. What is the problem?"

The man shrugged. "There _is_ no problem that I know of. Everything is peaceful here."

What didn't help matters was that the other two agents were apparently trying to restrain themselves. A quick glance showed they were keeping their usual grim watchfulness… but their eyes were dancing. That bothered Long Feng.

Besides the fact that the lamp operator was smiling that wide, fixed smile.

He put on a calm smile of his own, looking pleased. "Very well. In that case, I will leave you to your responsibilities." He started to turn back to his office.

"Yes, sir. I will go and await the next group of newcomers to Ba Sing Se."

Long Feng stopped and turned around. "What are you talking about?"

"They will need education about the City."

Long Feng frowned and raised an eyebrow. "We have guides to handle that. You are—"

"But _I_ ama guide, sir. I'm Joo Dee. That's my responsibility."

Hence the calm expressions and dancing eyes of the man's fellows and the now exasperated looks of the others. "You—" Long Feng took a moment to compose himself. "Very well. Joo Dee, I have another assignment for you. You will go with these men and follow their instructions."

The lamp operator meekly nodded. 'Yes, sir."

"Very good, Joo Dee." Long Feng smiled, then turned to one of the other agents. "Get another lamp operator down here and fix this," he growled.

The two lamp room agents snapped to. "As you wish." They laid hold of the lamp operator, who was cheerfully rambling about something else, and took him away.

Long Feng returned to his office. _Idiot._ _He_ knows_ better than to let that happen. That's the second time this month…_


	32. Nothing to Sneeze At

Thanks, papyrus, VividDreamer, Irako, Graci Satchell! And yup, Graci, Zuko and Ozai were playing _pai sho_. :D

And Vee, you really shouldn't give me plot bunny ideas like that. You really shouldn't. :DD

Or you either, Irako! XD I wrote about the Dai Li here because I thought the idea was funny, but that is a rich mine there, I admit. How exactly does King Kuei get turned into a figurehead when other Earth Kings have been more involved? And how do the Dai Li reach that position? Those are interesting ideas. For that matter, I'm gonna have to ask you about that Ursa-becomes-Joo Dee fic. That sounds _very_ interesting, very plausible.

I admit it was a bit of a stretch to have the lamp operator get beguiled by his own work so much that his co-workers could turn him into a Joo Dee, but... well, thought I'd explore it. I agree, I didn't see any male Joo Dees, but given what the Dai Li did to Jet, I could see the possibility. And if I remember right, Long Feng uses code words to speak to the first Joo Dee we saw to, um... calm her, so I felt the lamp operator and his folks were responsible in part.

This next one I've had on my mind for a while. It's actually one of the first fanfic ideas I had, but I just hadn't gotten to it til now. I also realized (realize, I admit) that something similar to this was done in Dark Horse's print of _ATLA's Lost Adventures_, but I solemnly swear that I did not see that and then think of this. :D It just happened on its own.

I mean, when your lead character has a sneeze like a bazooka, well... what _are_ you supposed to think of? XD Hope you like this one, too. And thanks again for reading.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Nothing to Sneeze At<em>**

It was a nice, normal, sunny day in the Earth Kingdom; good flying weather. Blue skies with fluffy white clouds abounded, and Aang guided Appa through them to their next destination. Toph, Sokka, and Katara rode in the saddle in back, busy with reading, eating, sight-seeing, sleeping, or whatever normally occupied their attention in flight. Momo was catching a quick snooze in a tucked-in part of the saddle.

Aang rubbed his nose briskly. He contorted his face violently, but it was no use. He sneezed.

"Ahhh—_CHOO!_"

He blew himself off of Appa's head.

It wasn't too big of a deal; the sneeze had blown Aang up and behind Appa, so he merely channeled the air currents to increase his speed and bring him back to a gentle touchdown on Appa's head. He took up Appa's reins again.

The Gaang in back hadn't noticed.

A little while later, Aang's nose started itching again… and twitching. Again Aang tried to fight it off, rubbing his nose, screwing his face up in all sorts of expressions, but to no avail. He turned his head.

"Ahhh—_CHOO!_"

That sneeze blew him off to Appa's right. Again, no problem, beyond some quick (and annoyed) Airbending on Aang's part. He rocketed back up, gently arced over, and came to a rest once again on Appa's head.

Appa certainly noticed; he made a lowing sound.

Aang patted his head. "I'm fine, buddy. Just an itchy nose. Nothing to worry about."

Then the itch started up again.

Once again Aang tried to fight it off. He didn't have a handkerchief with him so he could blow his nose (in a more controlled fashion), so he rubbed his nose, blew air out of each nostril individually in turn, screwed up his face trying to fend off the inevitable explosion, and—when he found he couldn't—grabbed onto Appa's head.

He got a nose full of Appa's fur.

"_Ah—__**CHOO!**_"

The resulting sneeze blew Aang over Appa's back and into the saddle. He spun Momo around so _he_ flew up in a shrieking fit, knocked over Sokka, and came to rest at the back of the saddle.

"Came to rest" being a relative term; the impact was pretty hard.

"_Ooooof!_"

Katara looked over at him. "What was that?"

Aang shrugged and rubbed his nose. "Just a sneeze. I've had an itchy nose for the past little bit."

"Just a sneeze?" Sokka turned himself around to look at him. "_Just a sneeze?!_ You almost knocked me out of the saddle!"

"I'm sorry, Sokka." Aang looked sheepish. "I _am_ trying to control it."

"Well, try harder! I can't fly like you, okay?"

Momo looked at Aang and added some expressive shrieks onto the end of Sokka's statement.

"See?" Sokka gestured to Momo. "Even Momo agrees with me."

Aang chuckled. "Okay, Momo. I'll try a little harder to control my sneezes."

Momo seemed satisfied with that. He curled up again and went back to sleep.

o o o

That afternoon the Gaang landed and made camp in a cave. As they got off of Appa, Katara looked over at Aang again. "You okay? You sure you don't have a cold?"

"Nope." Aang shrugged. "I generally don't get colds."

Katara looked uncertain. "All right…"

The Gaang set about setting up camp. Katara collected water from the nearby stream, Aang went to get firewood, Sokka checked the nearby bushes for fruit and nuts (and any animal that might seem tasty), and Toph sent a chimney hole up through the roof of the cave. Katara came back with the water and found Sokka sitting by the cave mouth. "Any luck?"

"Nope. Picked clean." Sokka looked out of the cave. "Guess I'll have to go out a little further." Nearby, Momo shifted a berry to his mouth.

Aang came back with an armful of firewood… but the dust and bark were setting off his nose again. Face contortions still didn't help.

"Ah-_CHOO!_"

The sneeze went into the wood in his arms. Sokka had to deal with a storm of sticks; he brought up his arm and leg protectively. "Hey!"

"Sorry, Sokka. I—ah-_CHOO!_"

_That_ sneeze went in Katara's direction. It knocked her off balance—and the water she was bending up from the bucket got blown at Sokka, leaving him soaked. "_Hey!_"

"I'm sorry, Sokka! Here—lemme get that." Aang Waterbent the water off of Sokka and out of his clothes—just in time for another sneeze. "Ah-_CHOO!_"

Sokka got soaked. Again. "_Aang!_"

Katara chuckled. "**_I_** got it." She used her own Waterbending to suck Sokka dry of water—again—then she quickly put the water in the pot where she had wanted it before. "Gran-gran has a soup to help you fight colds. It has a lot of pepper in it. Maybe I should make some."

"Pepper?" Sokka worked on his ear to get the remaining water out. "That's funny."

Katara frowned. "What do you mean?"

Sokka stopped working on his ear. "Doesn't pepper _make_ you sneeze?"

"I guess so. I only know that she swears by it."

Aang smiled and shrugged. "Better she swears by it than at it, I guess."

Now Sokka frowned. "Hey, how would you know? You've never sworn in your life."

Another shrug from Aang. "I guess it's the kind of life I lead." He looked back toward the cave entrance. "I'd better go get another load of firewood. I don't know how much we're going to need if—ah-_CHOO!_"

Naturally Aang had turned away from Sokka, and equal and opposite reactions knocked them both into the cave wall.

Sokka rubbed his head and glared at Aang. "Speaking of swearing…" Aang weakly smiled at him.

o o o

Everyone settled in that evening around the fire… "settled" also being a relative word.

While waiting for Katara's pepper soup, Aang's nose was still itchy—and once again…

"Ah-_CHOO!_"

The sudden gust of wind ruffled everything. It also rolled some coals from the fire onto part of Sokka's shirt, where they sat smoldering, unnoticed.

For a moment.

Sokka smelled smoke, saw fire, and was on his feet and out of the cave in a shot. "**_Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!_**" He jumped into the stream near the cave. Coming back after putting the fire out, he squished a bit, and he glared at Aang.

"Hey, Snoozles!" said Toph. "Didn't know you were a Firebender!"

That didn't help.

Aang turned away from the fire. Soon after that, though, he sneezed again.

"Ah-_CHOO!_"

_That_ one was aimed Toph's way, but she heard and felt Aang swelling up again for another sneeze and raised a slab of rock just in time to block it.

Toph frowned at Aang. "Hey, Twinkletoes! Your people've gotten colds before—you can't've just sat there and put up with it!"

"We didn't, actually." Aang rubbed his nose again. "We had a special room you had to go to at the Southern Air Temple if you had a cold. It was a padded room, away from everyone else. You had to…"

Sokka, still not happy, pointed at the cave mouth. Toph, grinning, joined him. Katara, smiling apologetically, did the same.

Aang was downcast. "Oh."

o o o

A while later, Aang turned to yell into the cave from outside. "Do I have to stay out here all night?"

Sokka's yell came back. "Well, you're the sick one—you tell us!"

"Actually, I'm feeling pretty good, now!" Aang yelled in reply. "I haven't sneezed in a good… a good… ah-_**CHOO!**_"

The sneeze knocked him into a pillar of rock near the cave mouth, but the rest of it went into the cave. Aang heard a lot of crashing and banging, and winced at each sound. A moment later, Sokka came running past, on fire. Again.

"**_Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!_**"

Aang cringed at that, too, and again when he heard a splash in the stream.

A moment later, a soggy Sokka squished his way back to the cave. He stopped, glared at Aang, pointed to the grassy spot on top of the cave, then walked into the cave, grumbling all sorts of things Aang had never heard Water Tribe people say before.

Or wanted to.

o o o

A while later Aang sat on top of the cave, his back to an outcropping of rock, looking up at the setting sun. He was glad it wasn't raining, at least.

His nose gave him no warning.

"Ah-_CHOO!_"

The sneeze drove him back into the rock, which wasn't too bad, but his heels came down on top of the cave.

_Boom_.

That impact sent just enough Earthbending juju into the rock to cause a tiny tremor—not much, but enough to loosen a rock in the ceiling down below, and…

_Crunch_.

"Ow!"

Aang winced at that, too. He waited, and waited, and sure enough, there was Sokka, growling as he came up the rock and rubbing his head. He also had a rope in his hand.

o o o

After sunset, a very unhappy Aang sat tied to a tree within sight of the cave mouth, pointed away from the cave. A few bushes nearby had been denuded of leaves. Momo had come out to keep him company—but behind Aang, not in front of him.

Katara came out of the cave with a bowl in her hands. She smiled apologetically. "It's ready."

"_Good._ Thanks!" Aang looked a little desperate. "Anything to get back in the cave."

Katara handed him the bowl. "Careful, it's hot!"

"Thanks." Aang took a sip—and his eyes bugged out. "Wow! That's a lot of pepper!"

Katara shrugged. "That's what the recipe called for."

"Well, whatever works." Aang blew on the soup—very gently—then took another sip. His eyes widened. "Is that… cabbage?"

"Yeah. That's what the recipe called for—lots of vegetables. I was surprised." Katara smiled. "This is a Water Tribe recipe so I thought it would have called for meat, but it didn't. Sokka wasn't happy about that."

"Lucky for me. I couldn't drink this otherwise." Aang took another sip. "Hey, maybe somebody Gran-Gran knew got it from Air Nomads!"

Katara shrugged and smiled. "Could be." She looked at Aang. "How do you feel?"

"I feel…" Aang considered. He hiccuped—which _wasn't_ explosive—and smiled. "Full of pepper, that's for sure."

"But otherwise?"

"Well, my nose doesn't feel itchy—but lately it hasn't given me much warning."

"Do you feel good enough to… come back into the cave?"

"I'd love to—if Sokka will let me back in."

She grinned. "_You_ get back into the cave. _I'll_ deal with Sokka."

Aang nodded, smiling. "Deal."

Even though Aang could reach the knot that Sokka had made, Katara could reach it more easily. She undid the ropes. Aang slurped down the last of the soup. "I'd keep that pepper soup recipe. That's a good one."

Katara laughed. "I'm going to. Toph and Sokka thought so, too."

"Really? I can't see Sokka eating anything without meat in it."

"Yeah. He surprised me too."

Then Aang let out a big burp. He cringed. "Sorry."

"No, that's okay. That's another thing the soup does. I think it's the cabbage."

Aang burped again. "Hmm… how much cabbage did you use?"

"A whole head of it. It's what we had."

Aang felt another bubble rise in his stomach. "Um… I may be doing this for a while."

Then a couple of loud burps came out of the cave… and after a moment, they kept coming.

Now it was Katara's turn to cringe. "You won't be the only one."

As soon as Katara and Aang came into view, Sokka smiled at them. "Hey, Katara! This is some great soup you made!" He let out a loud burp.

"Yeah!" Toph belched. "This is the best stuff you've cooked yet!"

Aang burped, and winced. He turned to Katara. "Uh, you haven't had any of this, have you?"

Katara didn't look happy. "Some… but I thought you needed it more, so I… didn't have much."

Aang offered her the bowl. "You could have some more."

Toph and Sokka proceeded to trade burps. Aang tried to suppress his occasional burp between clenched, smiling teeth.

Katara frowned. "No thanks. I… think I'll go get some air." She went to get her sleeping bag.

"Katara?" She turned. Aang gave an anguished smile. "Thanks?"

She smiled warmly. "You're welcome." She frowned at Toph and Sokka, who were now trying to burp musically, and headed for the roof of the cave.

Aang kept burping right along with Toph and Sokka, who were enjoying every last one. He felt embarrassed and lumpish about it—_burping like that, in front of __**Katara**_ kept flashing into his brain—but eventually his impish side caught hold of him, and he too joined the burpfest. _Someone_ had to show these amateurs how to do it right.

So he did.

And when he did, Katara, now out of sight of the others, couldn't help but giggle. And keep giggling.


	33. Eye of the Needle

Thanks, papyrus, Irako! And my gosh, Irako... that's about as high a compliment as I can get. Thank you _very_ much. :D

(You've also given me a plot bunny of Zuko having to deal with _his_ sneezes, but I'm gonna have to work on that one. XD)

I meant to get this next one out before "Nothing to Sneeze At", but it didn't quite happen that way. "Nothing to Sneeze At" I saw happening sometime during Season 2, whereas this one I see in Season 1, before they arrived at the North Pole.

Hope you like it. And thanks again for reading, everybody.

* * *

><p><span><strong><em>Eye of the Needle<em>**

It started with a small tear in Sokka's pants, in a rather inconvenient place. He found the tear during a "bathroom break" after lunch, while Appa was resting between flights. Sokka thought about switching to his other pair of pants and bringing the first pair to Katara for mending, but given how Katara had objected last time to his statement of "girls are better at sewing than boys" (among other things), he did what he usually did. He ignored the tear.

Or tried to. The tear inevitably got wider by day's end. That evening he switched to his other pair of pants.

A few days later Sokka was in the process of switching places with Aang and taking Appa's reins when they hit an air pocket. Appa shifted to stay airborne, and Sokka shifted to stay on Appa. His legs adjusted to the change in direction, but his pants couldn't.

_Rrrrrip!_

Sokka heard _and_ felt that. He groaned.

Aang turned his way. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing—I just thought of something I… left behind at the last campsite. Yeah. I'll have to get it when we land."

"What is it? Maybe I can help."

"No, no, that's okay. I'll take care of it."

Aang smiled. "Okay. Let me know if you need help looking for it." He made his way back toward the saddle.

Sokka took up the reins, got as comfortable as he could, then looked down at the problem spot, checking it with his hand to be sure. He groaned again. _Yep… it _had_ to be that spot._

o o o

That evening was awkward. Sokka walked around the camp with shortened steps trying to prevent any further damage, and naturally Katara noticed.

She gave him a funny look. "You all right, Sokka?"

"Yeah," agreed Aang. "You look like dinner didn't agree with you."

"No, no, I'm fine," replied Sokka. "I'm just… stiff from all the flying we did today."

Aang tilted his head. "But that was a while ago. We've been on the ground since sunset."

Katara's look got funnier. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm _fine_," Sokka insisted. "I don't need any more attention, all right?"

"All right…" Aang said dubiously. Then he brightened. "Hey, did you find that stuff you were looking for?"

Sokka looked puzzled. "What stuff?"

"That stuff you said you left behind this morning—at the other campsite?"

"That stuff—oh, oh yeah! Yeah, I got it."

Katara tilted her head. "But you've barely left camp."

"_I'm_ **fine! ** I got what I needed, I don't need anything else, I _feel okay_, I just… I'm going to bed."

"But it's barely past dinner!" said Katara, her face screwing up even more. "Don't you wanna—"

"No, I don't! Good night!" He stomped toward his sleeping bag, which was close to Aang and Katara, grabbed it, carried it to the other side of the campfire, threw it down, and made a big business of getting into it and settling down.

Aang looked at Katara. "I'm starting to worry about him." Katara shrugged uncertainly.

o o o

The following day Sokka found he had more problems. Now it was daylight, so the tear would be even more visible, and worse, they had to remount Appa—as well as reload his saddle. None of that would help the tear in his pants, or him.

He thought about it… then he seized on something Aang had said. He stayed in his sleeping bag. When the others showed signs of getting up, he stayed there—and moaned.

Aang, standing, looked over at him. "What's wrong, Sokka?"

Sokka moaned again. "I think… you were right. My stomach… it hurts. Couldn't sleep all night." He moaned again.

Katara looked over. "What's wrong?"

"I think we were right." Aang looked at Katara. "His stomach's bothering him."

"Well, the way he eats… I'll make him some tea. That ought to help."

Aang nodded. "I'll look for some wild honey. Gyatso always said that was good."

"Be careful!"

"Sure will. _I_ don't wanna get stung." Aang smiled. "Come on, Momo!" Momo chittered in acknowledgement and flew to join him as he went into the forest.

Katara patted Sokka's shoulder. "You just rest. We'll stay in camp today."

Sokka looked at her, mournful. "Thanks, Katara," he said in a forlorn voice.

She snorted. "Now I know you're sick!" She went to make the tea.

Sokka settled down to "rest". _Okay, Sokka… **think.**_

o o o

Between Katara's tea and the honey Aang brought back from the forest, Sokka came around and started to feel "better". He stayed in his sleeping bag continuing to rest (and continuing to wonder what he was going to do about his pants) while Katara and Aang took care of things around the camp. Appa certainly didn't mind the unscheduled day of rest either; his soft snores filled the camp.

In the middle of the afternoon, Katara went off to find water and scout for nuts and berries.

"Want me to come with you?" Aang asked (a little eagerly).

"No… I think we'd better have someone here to watch Sokka, just in case."

Aang smiled. "Appa and Momo could watch Sokka."

Katara smiled herself. "Right. I'm sure they could do a good job, too." She picked up the buckets. "Stay and watch Sokka. I'll be back."

"All right…" Aang dimmed.

While Katara was away, Aang noticed that _he_ had a tear in his sleeve. "Darn it…" He went to his pack. To Sokka's amazement, Aang took off his shirt, got out a needle and thread, and started to mend the sleeve.

"Aang!" Sokka said in a strangled voice. "What are you doing?"

Aang looked over at Sokka, confused. "I'm… mending my shirt."

"You can't do that!" Sokka half-whispered again. "That's girls' work! It's not manly!"

At that, Aang chuckled.

"Sokka. You remember when we visited the Southern Air Temple?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how there were only guys there, right? And the girls were at the Eastern and Western Air Temples?"

"Yeah, so?"

"You think we waited for someone from the Eastern or Western Air Temple to come and mend our clothes?"

"Well, I, uh…"

Aang chuckled again. "We didn't. We fixed our own clothes—_and made_ our own clothes, too. There's nothing girly about it. We just did it. Gyatso taught me how to sew." He smiled. "He taught me a lot of things."

Things whirled around in Sokka's head before he spoke again—the logic of the Air Nomads' living conditions was right there, plain as day; he just hadn't ever thought about it before—but he also realized it might present a solution to his problem. "So, you… mend your own clothes?"

"Yup." Aang nodded. "Self-sufficiency. Part of being an Air Nomad."

Sokka's face took on a sheepish smile. "Listen, I don't suppose you could… mend something for _me_, couldja?"

Aang laughed. "No. I mean, I _could_ mend something for you, but I bet you can sew as well as _I_ can, if you tried."

"Aang, honest, I'm serious!" Sokka gesticulated at him. "I've got this rip in my—"

"Hey, you're up! Good." Katara walked into the campsite, buckets full. "You're sounding much better." She looked at Sokka. "Your color's good… maybe we can leave tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me." Aang shrugged. "Sokka and I were talking, and he sounded pretty good. He didn't _look_ like he was in pain."

"Oh? What were you talking about?"

"Well, Sokka asked if I could—"

"Manly stuff." Sokka dropped his voice to a lower pitch. "We were talking about manly stuff, Katara. I don't wanna talk about it."

Aang's face screwed up in puzzlement. Katara laughed at Sokka. "Okay. Go ahead and keep your _manly_ secrets to yourself. I'll just have to guess."

o o o

The afternoon and evening weren't much better. Sokka kept trying to talk to Aang when Katara was out of earshot (which wasn't often) and trying to keep Katara from being suspicious wasn't easy (more like impossible). Still, Sokka kept at it.

Eventually Sokka came around to the idea that he would _have to do the mending himself_. That part was actually easier—at least, the "getting the needle and thread" part, anyway. Aang was happy to lend Sokka his needle and thread, and it was easier to get that done and not attract Katara's attention. Aang was more than happy to show Sokka what he knew, too, but Sokka insisted on doing it himself, much as he would have liked the instruction. He felt that Katara would _never_ let him hear the end of it if she found out. So, under cover of darkness and firelight, Sokka set to work, stitching away when he felt Katara wasn't looking (and stitching his own fingers sometimes. That wasn't fun.)

The following morning, though, Sokka felt pretty good. His pants were a thread merchant's pleasure and a tailor's nightmare, but they were sewn back together. He put them on with pride. They did feel oddly bunched together at the newly-sewn seam, but they were intact. That was what mattered. He also had learned a new skill in the process.

Though one he could never openly talk about.

That afternoon, though, as Sokka was taking over Appa's reins from Katara, Appa shifted in flight. Sokka did his best to stay on Appa, and succeeded—though not without cost.

_Rrrrrip!_

Sokka closed his eyes and groaned in frustration.

"Sokka! Are you all right?" Katara was all concern.

"I'm _fine!_ Let me just… get up there and take the reins!"

"But your stomach! Are you sure? You could be having a relapse! We need to get down as soon as we can!

"

"_I'm __**fine! I just tore my pants again, that's all!**_"

Naturally Aang heard—and naturally he couldn't help but be helpful. "That's okay, Sokka! You can borrow my needle and thread again!"

Sokka's jaw dropped at hearing that—and he immediately smacked himself in the forehead.

Katara was incredulous. She started to laugh. "Wait. _That's_ what all that was about yesterday? You were _mending_ your _pants?_"

With the cat out of the bag, Sokka found no point in pretense anymore. "_Yes! Yes it was! I was trying to mend my own pants, all right?_"

Katara just lost it—she laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Sokka, for his part, turned redder and redder as he sat down, gathered up the reins, crossed his legs, and tried to burn a hole in the clouds up ahead with his eyes.

Katara made her way back to the saddle, laughing all the way and chuckling as she sat down. That changed, though, when she looked at Aang; he was sad, and looking at Sokka up in front.

Katara stopped laughing. "What's wrong?"

"Sokka told me yesterday he thought sewing was 'girls' work'. I didn't think so. We took care of our own clothes at the Southern Air Temple all the time; it's not girly to me. I wanted to share that with Sokka, but he was afraid of getting caught." He lowered his head. "He didn't want to make you mad."

"Aang, I was laughing at—all yesterday, Sokka was acting like he was sick, and now today he split his pants and I—he was walking around like he was…" Katara summoned a weak smile. "It was funny."

"I know… _he_ doesn't think so." Aang nodded toward Sokka. "I gave away what he was doing." He went back to looking at Appa's fur.

Katara looked at him, fumbling with her words. "Aang, I don't think it's girly either, it's just… the whole way things happened… I mean I _do_ think he could use a lesson about sewing, the same way Suki taught him about girls and fighting, but…" She sighed. "I don't know…"

They sat there for a moment at opposite ends, Sokka still burning holes in the clouds, Aang still looking down, Katara unsure about what to do next.

Then Aang, still looking at Appa, smiled slightly. "You could teach him."

"Teach him what?"

"_You_ could teach him about sewing."

Still seated, Katara brought her hands to her hips. "Why would I? _He_ said he doesn't wanna learn. _He_ said it's 'girl's work'. Why should I?"

"Because he tried to learn. Because he wanted to do it himself, so he wouldn't make you mad like he did last time. He was trying to learn how to do it."

"So that he didn't make me mad, that's what you're really saying."

Aang gestured to her, helpless. "I did. I just said that."

Katara turned her head, frowning. Aang sighed.

o o o

That night in camp felt very awkward. Aang wanted to say something to try and bridge the gulf between Sokka and Katara, but their faces promised a fight if he did. Talking about anything other _than_ that felt ridiculous, like he was trying to ignore the badgermole in the room. They spent a good part of the night listening to the birds and the cricket grasshoppers. Aang never enjoyed a sunset less.

A while after sunset as the fire was crackling away, Sokka cleared his throat. "I, uh, wanted to ask you something."

Aang looked at Sokka, who was looking at Katara. Katara wasn't speaking to Sokka, so nobody answered.

"I have a… rip, in my other pair of pants, and I need some help."

Katara did respond to that. "Help doing what?" she snapped.

The cricket grasshoppers had the floor again for a moment.

"I need help mending my pants," Sokka said contritely.

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Katara exploded. "Sure, just throw 'em on over here! I've got nothing better to do! Just give the ripped up clothes to the _girl_, since that's _girl's work!_"

"_No!_" Sokka reached out to her. "That's not what I meant!"

"Then what _did_ you mean?"

"I meant… could you show me _how_ to do it."

Aang was wide-eyed and surprised. So was Katara—for a moment.

"_Why?_ Is this some sort of trick to get me to sew up your pants, and then you'll _forget_ when you need to sew them up again?"

"_No._ No, it's not." Sokka looked down at the dirt. "I want to learn how to fix them myself."

He drew a breath. "I got to thinking about what Aang told me about his people, and what they think about sewing. And I got to thinking about Dad and our warriors, in the Earth Kingdom right now. Certainly they're not—" He stopped, afraid he was going to blunder with what he said next. He thought about what he wanted to say, then continued. "I know I said it was girl's work before. I think now it's more like work that girls can do, _or_ boys. Dad wouldn't hand his pants to a girl if he got a rip in them—he'd fix them himself. They all would. It's work that's there to be done, and somebody has to do it. It just…" he shrugged, "happened that I was busy with other things."

"But you said that girls can sew better than boys, right?" said Katara, still angry.

"Yes! I did! But _I_ want to do it now! It's not about girls or boys, it's about a rip I have in my pants, and I wanna fix it if it happens to me again! Which, given the way Appa's been flying lately…"

"Hey!" Aang pointed at Sokka. "Don't blame Appa!"

"Okay! It's not Appa's fault, either! It just… happened! Fine! Katara…" Sokka spent a moment cooling down, trying to stay on topic. "I don't know how to do this; you do. If there's anything Suki should have taught me, it's that it doesn't matter if a girl or a boy does something, it's just… work. Or a job. Whatever."

Katara was incredulous. "So now you're blaming _Suki_ for not teaching you _sewing?_"

"**_NO!_** I should have said 'my _time_ with Suki!' I was wrong! Okay? I—was wrong. Suki is a girl _and_ a warrior. I can be a warrior _and_ a guy who sews! It's all the same thing!"

"Katara," Aang said, not seeing the smile that was beginning to creep onto Katara's lips, "I think it would _really_ help Sokka if you taught him how to sew."

The smile vanished. Katara turned to Aang. "Why don't _you_ teach him?"

"Hey." Aang spread his hands. "I already offered. He asked _you_."

"Yeah, Katara, please—it _really_ would help me if you taught me how to sew." Sokka brought his hands together in front of him.

Katara was leaning in that direction already, but being Sokka's sister, she wanted to make sure he properly "understood" the value of what he was asking for. Now she felt he had. "All right. I'll do it. I'll teach you how to sew."

"_Thank you!_" gushed Sokka in a low voice. "I _really_ appreciate it!"

"Good. But…" Katara tilted her head. "Didn't you say your _other_ pair of pants?"

"Yeah…?"

"What about the pair you're wearing now? I heard them rip this afternoon."

Sokka looked mortified—not just because his pants were ripped, but because that meant he had more he had to ask Katara for. "Yeah, they did… rip today."

"Good. We'll have more to practice on tomorrow." She turned to Aang. "Aang, you'll take care of guiding Appa most of tomorrow, probably for the next few days. Sokka will need to focus on his sewing."

Aang nodded. "Okay."

"All right. Now, everybody get a good night's rest." Katara smiled at Sokka with a devilish glint in her eyes. "You're gonna need it."

o o o

The following day Katara made good on her word; she taught Sokka how to sew. They first took care of one pair of Sokka's pants… and then the other. They then worked their way through several things Katara had been saving for when she had time.

A while after that, when someone had a tear in their clothes, Katara brought it to Sokka to fix. He didn't like it and he protested a few times, but Katara reminded him that he had to practice what he had been taught. He didn't like hearing _that_ either—but the point was valid. He practiced.

Years afterward, Hakoda found Sokka sewing on a button that had popped off. He gave Sokka a look. "I didn't know you'd learned how to sew."

"Well, you know how it is, Dad…" Sokka stretched. "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

Hakoda nodded, smiling. "Indeed he does, Sokka. Indeed he does."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Full disclosure-my mom taught me how to sew years ago, and I take care of my own mending. :D


	34. Tale of the Knives

Thanks, papyrus, Irako, Astrid, everybody! :D

I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. I did have another project I was working on, _Bringing Up Korra;_ that's complete now, so hopefully I'll be able to spend some more time here.

One thing I noticed, and I have no idea how this happened, is that I have two stories I posted on KF that I have _not_ posted here. Since they both have to do with Maiko and this just happens to be the month of Mai, er, May, it seems a good time to bring them out. :D Hope you like them. And thanks again, everybody.

* * *

><p><span><strong><em>Tale of the Knives<em>**

It all began with one.

Nine-year-old Mai was playing with Azula and Ty Lee when she saw something shining in the dirt, off away from where they were playing. She went over to look. There half-buried in the dirt was a knife—but a knife unlike any she had seen before. She picked it up; it certainly wasn't something you'd find at the dinner table. It was long and thin, and both sides of the blade were sharp.

"What're you looking at, Mai?" asked Ty Lee.

That drew Azula's interest, naturally. "Yeah, what are you looking at?"

"Something..." said Mai.

Mai knew how this was going to go; when Azula saw the knife, she was going to either make fun of it or take it. Quickly Mai stooped and picked up something else. She hid the knife.

Azula came over. "Come on, let me see."

Mai held out her hand. "It's a rock. It sparkles, so I wanted to look at it."

"That's silly. We've got lots of sparkly rocks." She knocked the rock out of Mai's hand and ran away. "Tag, you're it!" Ty Lee laughed and ran away too.

Mai grimaced and ran after. She didn't like playing tag at all, but it was better if you played Azula's game, whatever it was.

At least she had the knife.

o o o

The knife became special to Mai. She didn't know where it came from or what it was doing there, she just knew it was sharp and dangerous, and something Azula didn't have. She always kept it with her after that—especially when she discovered she could throw it into things. She knew it was probably something she shouldn't have, though, so she only threw it in secret, alone, especially when she was mad at something or someone.

But you know how secrets are.

One night after her mother had told her "not to speak at the table without being spoken to", she was throwing her knife into some wooden boxes, hard. It felt good.

"_What are you doing with that?_"

Mai whirled around. It was her uncle, a major in the Fire Nation Army. With his tied up ponytail and sour, puckered-up face, he looked well used to giving commands—and receiving near instant obedience.

Her uncle marched over to the knife and pulled it out of the wood, then turned and brandished it at her. "Do you know what this is?"

Mai hung her head. "Yes, sir."

"Where did you find this? You could have been hurt! Badly! You could _kill_ someone with this!" Now _he_ threw it into the boxes, and the knife buried itself in the wood, almost up to the hilt.

Her uncle turned back to her. "You could have been cut! Or worse!"

Mai looked at the floor. "Yes, sir."

He glowered at her. "Go to your room until I decide what to tell your parents."

"Yes, sir." Mai turned around and trudged off to her room, wondering what her parents would have to say to her about _this_.

Her uncle watched her go, still glowering... but then after a few moments, his expression softened.

"Mai. Stop."

Mai stopped on command and turned around.

Her uncle retrieved the knife, then came to her. "I wanted you to understand that a knife is a dangerous thing, especially one like this. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, sir," she said glumly.

He looked at her... and his expression softened a little more. Then he drew himself up.

"If you're going to use a knife, then you should learn to do it properly. Come. Let me show you how."

o o o

Mai kept practicing with the knife, and she became pretty good at it. Now not only could she hit the broad side of a barn, she could hit the door in the barn. Then, later, she could hit a window in the barn's door.

She had the time and the motivation. She kept playing with Azula and Ty Lee, but this was something all her own, something they couldn't do. It made her feel special. And seeing as her mother and father wanted her to be quiet and obedient... she could be quiet with this.

It also changed her relationship with her uncle. It started out awkwardly; she sought him out one evening at a family gathering, wanting to show her what she had learned. She said just that—and nothing more.

"Go on!" her father, his brother-in-law, had said. "You know she doesn't say much. It's good to promote her interest in things." So Mai's uncle went and saw. He was surprised at her aptitude, and he was more than a little pleased. He taught her more.

That opened a door between them. Mai knew adults as parents, disciplinarians, or teachers—often the same thing—but rarely as someone she wanted to learn from, someone who could teach her something she wanted to know. Her uncle knew the army, military things, martial things, and little else—but no one else seemed to need him, to like him, the way she did.

One time he brought home another knife, this one from the Earth Kingdom. Mai found it fascinating, what it was, where it had come from, and it led to her uncle telling tales of what he had seen and done while serving in the Earth Kingdom.

Eventually she enrolled in the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, and he was posted to the Boiling Rock Prison as its warden. They sent letters to each other. Mai did write home to her parents... when she had to. She felt they wouldn't care, but that her uncle would.

The day Mai chose knife-throwing as a combat skill at the Academy, she wrote to her uncle about it. She added that her instructor was so impressed with her current skills that she wanted to give her training beyond what the other students received. Her uncle was very pleased.

Mai also wrote to her uncle the day she found Zuko's letter saying goodbye. Her uncle had not been pleased.

They didn't talk very much nowadays, just a letter now and then, but they did keep in touch—especially now that Zuko was back in Mai's good graces. Her uncle offered the services of his prison should Zuko again step out of line. Jokingly, of course.

o o o

Mai, having finished her tale, slowly drew the one knife, the first one, from her sash. She presented it to Zuko.

Zuko took it and looked at it; one of the knife's edges caught the light. He looked at Mai. "So _your uncle_—the warden at the Boiling Rock—is the one that taught you how to throw knives?"

"Yes." Mai gave him a dry look, with a sparkle in her eye. "You're not the only one who can learn from their uncle."


	35. Party of the First Part - Part 1

Thanks, papyrus! :D Gosh, it's great to see you. It's been a while!

I wish I'd put more time into _Tale of the Knives_ . When Mai's uncle told Zuko "you broke my niece's heart", I don't think he was kidding around. I think Mai's uncle really cares, and if I'd spent the time, I think I could have added a bit more to their history. But there it is. I think I always feel that way about my stories; they're never really done, it's just a matter of how much time and mental "fuel" I have. :D

This next one was a first for me when I posted it on KF; it was the first multi-part story I put in ATLA Wanderings, so to continue the month of Mai, here we are again. :D Hope you like it. Thanks again for reading, everybody, and most especially for commenting.

* * *

><p><span><strong><em>Party of the First Part<em>**

**_Part 1_**

Zuko liked to practice his Firebending first thing in the morning. He did it to keep in shape, to keep his abilities in form, because... well, you never know. Mai knew about that, and one morning she decided to watch—discreetly, of course.

She didn't do something as gauche as hide in the bushes—but she did hide in the shadow of a doorway. There Zuko was, working his way through standard forms: short, sharp Fire punches, overarm hurls, leg kick-snaps. He aimed at targets that were carved into the walls, sometimes aiming at more than one in the course of a sequence. More than once he stopped, grumbled, reset, and tried again.

He did that a lot, Mai noticed. Zuko wasn't satisfied with near-misses or almost complete patterns. He would try it again and again until he got it—or he would back off, try a similar, simpler pattern, master that, and then come back to the more complicated sequence.

Zuko was something to watch, Mai thought to herself. He didn't have his shirt off, but she could see his muscles working through his sleeveless shirt, and his sweat gave a nice sheen to his skin.

Zuko picked up the pace. He added down-drop roundhouse kicks to his patterns and stayed in motion, not stopping to repair a missed target. He kept moving, like he was fighting off a horde of attackers. Sometimes he would aim several bolts of fire at one target, concentrating on it, other times he would aim on the fly, spinning, a whirling dervish of fire. More than once Mai had to duck behind the wall when the fire came too close.

Mai smiled. _I'm going to have to reward him for all that practice._

Then Zuko stopped. He stood still, concentrating. Mai looked on intently.

Zuko scooped one hand down and gathered charge. His other hand went on high in response, then came down and gathered more. He brought his hands together in front him, fingertip to fingertip, then pointed.

The air exploded. Zuko was blown off his feet.

Mai's eyes went wide.

Zuko scrambled back to his feet grumbling. He tried again. He brought one arm down again and gathered charge, then did the same with the other, brought his fingertips together, and pointed.

Again the air blew up and sent him sprawling.

This went on for a while. Zuko kept trying, but each time something blew him off his feet. Mai shook his head. _I think I need to tell him when to stop pursuing perfection._

Zuko kept on trying. And trying. And trying. Then at some point, ash-covered, dirty, grungy Zuko, still not getting it right, struck Mai as funny. She chuckled.

Zuko stopped in mid-move.

He whirled around and saw Mai with a half-smile on her face.

His blood was up. He was hot from exercise, and he didn't think his failure at something he _should_ be able to do was funny.

Especially when it came from someone who _should_ know him better than all others.

His fury built like a thunderstorm. His face contorted in rage. That mixed with his failure, his frustration, the fact that it was his girlfriend that laughed at him.

All that ran headlong into the fact that _Mai_ would be the one on the receiving end of whatever he did. If he said _one thing_ to her... if he did _one thing_...

Tormentor—supporter—tormentor—supporter—tormentor—supporter—

He felt like _he_ would explode.

"**_Gaaaaaaaaaahhh!_**"

He stomped off in angry frustration and left Mai standing there. She felt bewildered... and hurt.

o o o

The afternoon wasn't any better.

"So in conclusion, Fire Lord Zuko," said one of his regional governors, "I regret to say that it is _impossible_ for me to comply with your request."

Zuko glowered. "Governor Tulon, this is not a request—it is an _order_. You _will_ carry out these reforms."

"Yes... well, I do appreciate the difference between the two, Fire Lord, but I'm afraid _I_ am more in touch with the... particularities of the local situation."

Zuko's emotional temperature went up a notch. "And those are?"

"Well, it's a... bit complicated to explain in a single sitting, Fire Lord, but fortunately, one of _my_ talents is to be able to comprehend the vast difficulties in correctly assessing and—"

"—And sitting around talking in circles until sundown! We've been over this already! If you gave me one solid answer as to why, I would listen—but all you've given me are excuses!"

Strangely, the governor fell silent. He looked at Zuko impassively.

Zuko rubbed a hand over his face; he decided to ratchet back and try a different tack. "Governor: the war is over. Our problems are different. We need to try new solutions in these new times, and this is part of that."

"I understand that, Fire Lord, but I'm afraid you don't understand the realities of the situation as _I_ do—"

"Then _fine!_ Tell me what the realities of the situation _are_, and why it is you won't do this!"

"As I said, Fire Lord, it is a complicated matter which I cannot fully relay to you in a single audience. If you would give me time to prepare a report that will completely explain—"

"—That will completely explain why you've done nothing for two months?!" Zuko was livid. "You have had two months to do something and you've done nothing. And now you want more time for a report?!"

A new speaker from the side. "My lord—"

Zuko whipped around in the speaker's direction. "**_What?!_**"

The speaker was the chamberlain, and he gestured to his side. "My lord, the Lady Mai—"

Sure enough, there was Mai, standing there looking shocked at Zuko's response and expression. Granted, the chamberlain should have known better and his timing was lousy... but the damage was done.

Mai's face hardened into a mask of anger; she turned and walked away.

Zuko was sitting there shocked, his hand reaching out the way Mai had gone. All the morning's frustration came back with a roar.

This time, however, he had a target.

Slowly he turned back to the governor and gave him a magma-laden look.

"_I_ am the Fire Lord. _You_ are the governor. You will go back to your province and carry out my orders, or _I will come down there and __**remove you personally!**_"

The governor was shocked—and scared. He bowed from his seat on the floor, touching his head to the floor tiles, then got up and retreated as quietly and as quickly as he could.

Zuko remained where he was on the dais, seething. A good way to motivate and influence recalcitrant bureaucrats this might be, but it was lousy for personal relations.

To put it mildly.

**(_To be continued..._)**


	36. Party of the First Part - Part 2

Irako, I always love getting your reviews, and I always love reading them. Thank you _very_ much. :D

Maiko is a ship I don't write about very much, and I honestly wish I had more inspiration to do so—inspiration meaning I wish I had more ideas that struck me to write about it. I think it's a very rich area to explore because I feel their relationship within ATLA came across as very real, just like Katara's and Aang's. I like what you said about them, too, Irako, how they lived within others' expectations for so long that they have to be very touchy about so many things. I think that would give them some more common ground, though, in addition to how they feel about each other in the first place.

I also agree with what you said about Zuko and his reign; that subject is worth a novel all in itself, and that's something that—forgive me—I honestly feel like Gene Yang & Co. have not gone enough into with their graphic novels. That kind of nitty-gritty I would really appreciate. Going from a nation bent on conquest to something that at least tolerates the existence of the United Republic of Nations is an incredible journey, and while Aang certainly would have backed up Zuko's efforts and Iroh would have helped to wisely temper and guide them, it would have been Zuko's work—diplomatically, economically, militarily, the works—that would have made it all possible, and that… well, if that isn't worth a novel, I don't know what is. I have some ideas of my own, but I'm still trying to piece them together myself.

(sigh) One of these days. :D

I hope Part 2 of _this_ story meets your expectations. Thanks again for reading, everybody, and as always, thank you _very_ much for commenting.

* * *

><p><span><strong><em>Party of the First Part<em>**

**_Part 2_**

Zuko spent a while in the gardens that afternoon, meditating—more like cooling off and thinking about what to do. He had thought about going straight to Mai and apologizing, but he also felt he had better screw his head back on straight before he did that and think about what he did.

_What I did,_ he thought angrily. _I just reacted! How could _**I**_ know—?!_

His thoughts melted together into a stew of wordless anger, shrieking frustration—and then somehow he stopped himself. That was exactly why he needed to think.

He looked around. The gardens did promote calm, even daydreaming: carefully crafted bonsai, fountains gurgling among carefully placed stones, trees, bushes, and rocks creating little nooks and alcoves. It all helped to create a sense of balance... order... peace.

It was effective. Just being there, looking around, watching, listening, helped Zuko bleed off the anger. For the moment, anyway.

He thought about what he wanted to do... and then it came to him. It didn't have to be just him doing things. A small smile came to his face.

After all, he _was_ the Fire Lord.

o o o

Near sunset, Zuko walked to Mai's chambers. There was a train of a dozen servants behind him, bearing chairs, a table, gold plates, goblets, chopsticks, servingware, and several dome-covered serving dishes, each dish topped with the royal tongue of flame in gold.

Mai wasn't there.

He tried the library next, the servants trailing behind him bearing the chairs, the table, the gold serving dishes, and the rest, looking like nothing so much as a gaggle of turtle ducks.

No luck.

Zuko then thought of checking some of the balconies—some of which one had to climb stairs to get to. The servants didn't look too thrilled about that, but they shouldered their burdens and soldiered on. Zuko looked back and grimaced occasionally; he made a note to put some extra gold in their pay sacks for the month.

Eventually they found Mai. Sure enough, she was on a balcony near the top of the palace, looking out at the setting sun.

She saw him.

He saw her.

Her brow furrowed.

Everything that Zuko was going to say promptly flew right out of his head. He tried to remember some of it—and then remembered he had several heavily-laden servants behind him. He moved over to one side and motioned for them to set up. In came the servants with the table, the chairs, and the serving dishes, who arranged things appropriately on the balcony.

Mai's expression didn't change.

She remained silent while the servants assembled the table, positioned the chairs, set and laid the table with food and utensils. Zuko looked at her occasionally, hoping she would respond positively. All she did was stand there with folded arms.

Finally she spoke.

"This isn't going to work, Zuko."

He looked at her. "What isn't?"

She gestured. "This. You yelled at me today, Zuko. Twice. Putting on this show isn't going to fix anything."

"I didn't yell at _you_, I yelled because I was frustrated!"

She folded her arms again. "Same difference. _I_ thought you yelled at me, and you didn't do anything to make me think otherwise."

Zuko sighed gustily. "Look, I was frustrated because of what happened, because of the way things happened. I want to move past that."

Mai lifted an eyebrow. "Clearly."

The servants kept setting the table—although they did exchange the occasional look.

Zuko looked at the floor and gestured. "All right, this morning, I was having trouble bending lightning. I always do. I always have. But when you laughed... I took it the wrong way."

She frowned. "Obviously."

"I should have known you didn't mean it that way. You have done nothing but be supportive of me." He shrugged. "Maybe it would even help if I laughed at myself when I can't make that work. I don't know." He looked at her. "But you know I don't like being laughed at. I was frustrated, and that's the way I took it. I shouldn't have, I didn't mean to, but I did, and I didn't think, and I'm sorry."

Mai only frowned a bit more.

"And then, this afternoon, with that governor?" Zuko laughed. "I was angry at _him_, not you! And that interruption right then? Talk about bad timing!" Zuko shook his head. "I need to talk to that chamberlain." He risked a look at Mai. She still wasn't amused.

He sobered. "I still could have controlled myself better. The timing was bad, the situation was bad, but I still could have controlled myself better."

He chanced another look. She was still frowning, but she did look a little mollified.

Zuko swept an arm and gestured at the well-laden table. "I did this because I wanted to say I'm sorry, but I also wanted to spend some time with you, and talk. I wanted to explain how I felt and what I did. I also wanted to do something I thought you'd like."

Mai folded her arms tighter. "So you could win me over?" But now there was a hint of a smile.

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean—" He frowned at her. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah." She lowered her arms and came to him. "I do."

She put her arms around him, and he replied in kind. "I could have done better with my timing, too."

He smiled. "Yeah. You could have."

She poked him in the chest. "Hey. I'm still mad at you."

"What? I can't be mad at you too?"

"No."

He cocked his head and smiled weakly. "Could I... talk you into talking about it over dinner?"

Now she smiled. "Yeah. I think you could."

They kissed, then sat down to enjoy the meal laid before them. Red and orange fire from the sunset reflected off the goldware on the table and gave everything a mellow glow. The servants came and went, cleared and filled the table as their masters required, and traded happy, satisfied glances.

It was a good day's work, all told.


	37. Double Take

Thanks, Irako! (very late) That was one of my favorite parts, too, thinking of that line of poor, long-suffering servants having to troop all over the palace and haul everything for the dinner all over the place. That, and Zuko looking over his shoulder, cringing and hoping to make it up to them.

I like your idea of taking that further and showing a servant's-eye view of Fire Palace life. I'm going to have to follow that up, do something similar to my "Fill 'Er Up!" story in Korra Wanderings. (sigh) Someday. :D

This next one is, well, different from my usual approach, so I hope you'll bear with me. Two years ago I wrote something in honor of this part of the year, so here we are again. Hope you all like it. And thanks again for reading, and especially commenting. :D

* * *

><p><span><strong><em>Double Take<em>**

Sokka gazed at the full moon one night in his room in Yu Dao, and he pondered.

He thought about Yue, naturally… but he also thought about Suki—and in particular what _Yue_ might have thought about Suki. Even Ty Lee intruded into his thoughts, and how that happened he honestly wondered. Although there was the way she had smiled at him on board the Drill…

He shook his head briskly—then slowly, more sadly. He looked up at the moon again. _I love Suki, Yue_, he thought. _But I love you too. I know you're not here_ now_, but…_

He sighed.

"I don't know how to put this."

He moved back the covers, got out of his bed, and stood before the window.

"I don't want it to look like I've—like I've moved on," he said, talking with his hands. "I love you, but I love her, and she's here, and you and I won't be together for a long time, so…"

His face screwed up in consternation, searching for the right words. Eventually he looked at the floor.

"I just hope you can forgive me," he said quietly.

Then, in glorious white shifting light, Yue came to him. He was elated, seeing her for the first time since that terrible night at the North Pole, then… ashamed. He started to speak.

_That's all right, Sokka,_ Yue said in the unnerving backwards reverb of the spirits. _I understand_.

Sokka couldn't believe his ears. His mouth worked for a moment before he spoke. "You do?"

A small smile from Yue. _Of course. I _can _see you every night, after all._

Sokka's face soured as he thought about everything Yue might have seen. "You can?"

_Yes_. A warm understanding smile. _I know what you have gone through. I've seen it. It can't be easy. I forgive you._

His face lit in wonder. "You do? Really?"

The warm smile was still there. _Yes._

Sokka went to his knees, and he smiled. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I didn't know how I was going to explain—"

_That's all right, Sokka. I understand. I went through it myself_.

A guilty cringe. "I know. I was thinking about that too."

_It was easier for me in some ways. You mentioned moving on… I've moved on too._

That Sokka didn't expect. "What..?"

_Yes. I thought it was better—for both of us._

Sokka was still stuck in surprise. "What?"

_Yes_. Yue laughed a little. _It's funny, in a way—I think you know him._

An insect-like scuttling sound whispered into the room, but Sokka barely heard it. He tried to force his mind to work. It didn't work. "What? Who?"

_At least… I think Avatar Aang mentioned him to you._

The scuttling sound grew until that was all Sokka heard. A long, wide, centipede-like body, twice as long as a man was tall, scurried up from the right and brought itself upright near Yue. "Good evening, my darling!" it said.

Yue smiled warmly again, then turned to the centipede, her face blank. _Good evening, my love. It's good to see you tonight._ She leaned in to kiss the head of the centipede, and Sokka to his horror found himself looking at the old man's face of Koh.

The old man's mustached face switched to that of a baboon. "**Good evening,** Sokka. Yue's told me so much about you!"

Too late Sokka remembered what Aang had told him, what he had to do if he ever saw Koh, and his face still wore the shock of what had taken place. The baboon's face grinned cruelly and laughed. It glowed a sickly yellow, and Sokka felt his face tearing off of his head. He screamed—and he heard the scream coming from a source a hand's-breadth in front of him—his face lifting free—which made him scream even more—

Sokka jerked awake in his bed, panting.

He tried to collect himself. He threw back the covers, lurched out of bed, and stumbled toward the washbasin. He poured the basin full, then splashed water on his face—

—only to feel only skin—

Sokka looked in the basin. There in the faint light of the moon he saw his head, his disheveled hair, and no eyes, no nose, no mouth, _no face_—

He screamed.

He jerked awake in his bed. Again.

Quickly he ran his hand over his face and found his nose, his mouth. He exhaled, relieved. _It was just a dream._

_It was _all _a dream._

Moonlight shone in from the uncovered window, falling across his bed and drawing his gaze up to the full white moon in the starlit sky.

His stomach felt queasy.

_Wasn't it?_


	38. Double Take, Part 2

You read _this_ in one sitting **_and_** my Book 4 fic, too! My gosh, RakshaDaemon! Thanks! And to be told I'm keeping the Gaang in character is one of the highest accolades I can get. Thank you _very_ much. :D I really appreciate that.

Now if you know anything about me or are familiar with my writing style, or both, you know I tend toward happy endings and not fear/horror/shock... stuff, so the previous story is definitely something new for me. I did want to add that I was working on a follow-on story to that, but I didn't want to tip my hand about it-partly because I wasn't sure if I could get it to where I wanted to go and have it be good enough to be publicly presentable.

Thank goodness for good friends. :D My friend Invaderk took a look at it for me and made some good suggestions. Hope I put 'em to good use.

Hope you like this. Thanks again for reading, everyone, and especially for commenting.

Especially you, RakshaDaemon. Good grief. :D

* * *

><p><span><strong><em>Double Take, Part 2<em>**

Sokka sat there in his bed in Yu Dao, troubled. The full moon was still there, still quietly arcing across the sky through the watches of the night, but now, instead of being a serene, calming sight… it was a source of worry.

_How did he get her?_ he thought. _How did she fall for… __**him?**_

_Is she under his control somehow? Did he threaten her? How did he get to her? She could lose…_

Sokka was glad to feel the night breeze, the light weight of his sheets, glad to know his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his entire face was where it was supposed to be and that what he had seen had _not_ been real. That was a great relief.

But.

His stomach felt loose and shifting as he stared up at the moon, fear filling his face. _Was _any _of that real?_ he wondered. _What if it was a sign that he has her? What if he got to her by threatening to do things to me? Or her family? What if it was a warning? A message?_

_Can dreams_ do _that?_

He couldn't think of any answer to that.

He turned away from the window and rested his hands in his lap. He looked at them. _I have no idea._

I _don't know anything about dreams._

Then he realized something. His eyebrows went up.

_But I bet Aang might. That _is_ his territory, sort of._

He laughed weakly. _Of course, I don't think he'd want me to wake him up in the middle of the night. But this is Yue we're talking abou—_

He belched. Not just a mere dainty burp, but a real, hearty emission of gas that tasted of half-digested sea prunes.

"Whew!"

He waved his hand in front of his face trying to disperse the smell. When he was done waving, though, his stomach felt a little more steady, and some of his queasiness had gone away.

Sokka frowned at himself. _Huh_. He tilted his head, then back again. He did feel better… but the uneasiness crept over him again, almost as if he could hear the scuttling of Koh's many centipede feet.

Again he looked at the moon, and his chest filled with dread. His mouth opened slightly. _Could Koh have you? Could he have found some way to come into this world?_

Indelicately his system chose that moment to belch again, letting loose another eruption of sea prune gas. He covered his mouth, embarrassed. _Burping in front of Yue like that._ "Sorry."

The second burp didn't smell any better than the first one, either. He waved his hand in front of his face again.

After a moment, though, his expression lightened. _Although Toph would understand_.

He chuckled. He enjoyed that thought, how Toph would behave in front of the 'high and mighty' Moon Spirit. Which Yue wasn't, of course—'high and mighty'—but he knew that's how Toph would interpret things.

Maybe it was because his stomach was no longer so burdened with sea prunes, or maybe it was the picture of Toph blowing raspberries at Yue when she thought Yue wasn't looking, but Sokka felt better somehow.

He shifted in bed to get more comfortable. _You know, I know I don't know everything about spirit stuff_, he thought, _but I know that Yue is here, in this world, and Koh is there, in the Spirit World, and he'd have to do a pretty big amount of something to get_ here.

He warmed to the thought. _And Yue is _pret-_ty powerful in _this_ world. I mean, without _her_, we wouldn't have the moon, am I right?_

_So she can take care of herself. Yeah._

_I don't need to worry about anybody taking her _anyplace.

He settled back in bed and closed his eyes. _Yue isn't going anywhere she doesn't want to_.

He smiled at that thought, and went off to sleep.

A few moments later, though, he sat bolt upright.

_But what if she _did_ want to go with Koh?_

Again he looked at the moon—then back at the covers.

_What if _that _part wasn't a dream? What if she did move on? With Koh? What if she_ has _moved on?_

_I never thought about that before. I always thought…_

He swallowed. _I always thought that she'd be waiting for me._

He shrugged sheepishly. _I figured she could always _see _me, but I just thought that she would be there for me. I don't know _how…

Another shrug.

_I don't know how we'd resolve things, since there's Suki, and there's me, and Yue isn't here, but I figured…_

Another look at the moon.

_That we'd work it out somehow. I don't _know_ how, but I thought we would._

His eyes came down to the wall opposite his bed.

_But that's not fair._

He shook his head.

_That's not fair to_ her.

_Especially when _I_ clearly can be with somebody._

_I mean, I can see her, she can see me, I can talk, I don't know if she can hear me, and I can't hear _her… _She deserves it. She deserves someone. She deserves someone who can be with _her.

"Obviously _I_ can't," he said out loud with another shrug. "I can't be up there with her, yet. And it's not fair to expect her to sit up _there_ and watch _me_ all the time with someone. It's not fair. Even if she is with…" he shuddered, "_him_."

Sokka looked to the moon. "It really should be up to her. Not me."

He thought some more, then got out of bed and knelt in the moonlight, facing the window.

"Yue, I—I don't know how much of this make sense, or if you've been listening (which would make it easier), but… —And I don't know if you really need this." He laughed. "I mean, you're the Moon, after all. You don't really need my permission for anything. But…"

He sighed, and smiled sheepishly. "I don't know how we're going to figure things out when I _do_ get to the Spirit World, but I figure we will. And until we _can_ be together again and figure things out, I hope you're okay with me being with Suki—and I wanted you to know that I _am_ okay with you being with someone else." He lowered his eyes, happily thinking about the past. "You were okay with being with me in the first place. I can't tell you how much that means to me, how happy it made me." Again to the moon. "I want you to be happy too."

He sat there.

No shimmering vision of shifting light came to him, no sign manifested itself that Yue approved, or had even heard… but he felt better. He got up off the floor and back into bed, and smiled.

He would give of himself, fully and honestly, to whomever he was with. He would ask Yue's forgiveness when he saw her in person. And he hoped that she was as happy as he was, whomever she was with. Or not.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, he chuckled.

_Of course, hanging out with Koh would be a little awkward._

And on high, in the realm of the stars and the sky, if you happened to listen… there was a faint giggle.


	39. Many Happy Returns

Thanks, RakshaDaemon! On all counts! And well… I've always felt Sokka had a very fertile imagination. And so… :D

Now four years ago, I wrote a pair of AU ATLA fics in which Katara and Aang and then Mai and Zuko run into a certain jolly elf; if you're interested, you can read them here ( s/7139614/18/ATLA-Wanderings) and here ( s/7139614/19/ATLA-Wanderings). I always meant to write one for Azula, but I couldn't think of a good enough, and sensible enough, plot to get the two of them into the same space. (Part of the problem, of course, was the thought of "Azula? And Christmas? What?") But my mind being the back room full of back burners that it is, apparently I hadn't given up on the idea, and... this is the result. Going back to some of my Book 4 stories about Azula, of all things.

It ran a bit long, but like another fic of mine from a few years ago, "Tea for Three", it felt like natural conversation, so I thought I should leave it be. Hope it works. :D And hope you like it. Thanks again for reading.

And Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

* * *

><p><strong><em><span>Many Happy Returns<span>_**

The predominant color of the Royal Sanitarium was gray.

And black.

And various shades in between.

It was not like Azula had intentionally sought to study this, but given her countless hours, and days, and weeks, and months in what had now become her home, she hadn't had much choice.

There was gray stone... black mortar... shadows of black and deepening gray, depending on how the light outside and the light from the torches fell. There was blue from the occasional sunny day, if she happened to look out her small slit of a window, there was brown on the ground from the base of the caldera where the sanitarium was located, there might even be white if she was lucky enough to see a cloud outside—unless it was a completely cloudy day, in which case everything outside was gray, too. Her plate, her bowl, the chopsticks and spoon she had been given to eat with, all made of flat, gray iron.

All designed, she eventually concluded, to suck every last violent emotion out of any inmate of this place. To create a hopeless, sorrowful, sullen gray pit inside.

Gray.

Which was why the bright red sock hanging on the bars of her cell was such an anomaly.

She had woken up one morning and it was there, just idly attached to one of the black iron bars in the middle. It wasn't dark red, like the burgundy of Fire Nation uniforms, it wasn't an angry yellowing red like the greedy, devouring fire they all loved, it was a bright, cheery, festival wagon, baboon cheek red—a bright red sock as long as her arm, trimmed with a hand's-breadth of fine, soft, equally bright white fur.

Her jailors might as well have knocked a hole in the wall to let the sun shine in, for something to be so out of place. It was ridiculous.

It was maddening.

She levered herself off of her bunk, her bedsheets just as gray as the walls, and walked toward the strange red _thing_ uncertainly. A thought came: _Could Zuko have…?_

Other than her jailors, and her doctors (which she could well do without, she felt—_the frauds_), she had had only one visitor through the many months she had been here: Zuko. He had come only once—without Mai, and with his guards. It was nice to know he still viewed her as a threat.

Of course, he hadn't come back after she had thrown first fire at him, then insults, and taunted him to have the peasants in the kitchen put _orange_ in the orange sauce for her bland, colorless food, but even he had been a welcome break. Yet maybe this bizarrely out-of-place sock was from him, to drive her over the edge once more.

And she had been feeling better lately, more like herself. More like the self she used to be, or remembered.

"It _is_ a gift," said a deep voice.

She froze.

There was a mirror opposite her cell bars, angled so that people down a long brick corridor could see her and talk to her from a safe position. She could bend fire at the mirror (and she had), but the only thing that would happen if she did was that she would knock down the mirror. Her jailors would come, slide shut the steel door that completely blocked off her cell _and_ any light that came into it, and set up the mirror again. They then would reopen the cell after a while. When she had started to regain her sense of self, she had played that game with her jailors until she had gotten bored. It had taken a while.

Now, though, there was a man in the mirror.

His appearance matched the sock that was hanging on the bars. He was clad in bright, cheery, "Look at me, Hotman!" red, with bright white fur trim around his middle, on the cuffs of his sleeves, and above his black boots, and he wore a droopy red hat with poofy white trim and a silly white poof ball on its tail.

He wasn't from the Fire Nation, that was obvious. But where was he from? The moon? He was completely outlandish.

His expression was as incongruously cheery as his outfit. His long clean white beard spoke of many years, and he had a twinkle in his eye, like he knew something you didn't and he was just dying to tell you.

A lot like Uncle Iroh. That and the beard.

Azula frowned. That gave her some kind of mental landmark to navigate from.

"Why in the world would you give me a gift?" Someone who thought they knew better she knew how to teach otherwise.

The smile on the man's face grew, and so did the twinkle in his eye. "Because."

She didn't like that game, but she knew how to play it. _Very well…_ "Because why?"

And again the smile grew. "Because because."

Not that she liked playing that game for very long, either. She ground her teeth. "That doesn't make any _sense!_"

A soft chuckle. "I beg your pardon." He brought a hand to his glasses, and he looked over the tops of them. "I did think I was speaking with someone in a madhouse."

Being talked down to like that, insulted, made fun of—Azula lost it. She drew her hand back to throw a huge ball of flame, she didn't care if she knocked down the mirror—

"Careful," the cheery man said. "I wouldn't want you to burn your gift."

She was tempted to do it anyway, just for the spite of it and to see his face change, _anything_ except that insufferable smile… but Azula knew how to toy with people too, as this man did. She slowed herself down, then collected herself. "So. You don't want me to burn it, do you?"

A head nod to the side. "No, I don't."

A flame appeared in her hand, yellow-red in her cell. She was momentarily annoyed that it wasn't back to its focused blue—yet. Her head swiveled so she could see the man, and she smiled. "Then why don't you tell me what this 'gift' is, before I set it on fire?"

"I could." He was still smiling, but there was some sadness there. "But don't you want to find out yourself?"

"Why?" She made her smile look unsettling. "When I can just destroy this thing of yours?"

"It's no longer mine, Azula." A simple smile. Azula's jaw dropped. "I brought it for _you_. All of it."

The sound of her name was shocking. Her mind worked as her mouth did, trying to grasp what she'd heard. The obvious conclusion was… "The guards." A slight head shake. "Zuko. He told you! He told you my name!"

"No, Azula." The man shook his head. "He doesn't even know I'm here." A slight chuckle. "Well. He does know I'm _here_, since I visited him tonight. Or at least he _will_ know. But he doesn't know I'm _here_, where you are."

The man's outlandish dress… the way he talked, how he knew who she was… the fact that he had no qualms about her destroying something he'd given her… all this combined with Azula's current fragile state of mind to make her wonder if she had fallen back into the yawning abyss of madness once again, where the walls poured lava, green ostrich horses pranced on the ceiling, and her face appeared on her own body, and on Mai's, and on Ty Lee's (but thankfully not Zuko's, although how that happened she wasn't sure) (or _hadn't_ happened), but she fought. She fought for control, some kind of control over her current situation so that she could anchor herself once again in _some_ kind of relative reality—

"Aren't you going to open your gift?"

_That_ helped her. She felt more aware, like feeling a splash of cold water to combat sleep. Or at least it threw her a lifeline as to how to behave, how she _could_ behave and regain some sense of herself.

"Why?" A smirk. She moved her fire-hand closer to the sole of the sock. "If it's mine, it's mine to do with as I please, isn't it?"

"It is." Complete surrender. Or at least he was allowing her no sense of purchase over him. "And if you want to destroy it, I suppose that would give you joy in that sense. Which is really what I wanted." An honestly cheery smile. "I hope you enjoy it." He turned and started to walk down the corridor.

No. Not like that. She threw an arm out, and her yellow-red flame was snuffed. "Wait—"

He obediently stopped, then turned around and came back, still wearing that insufferable cheery smile.

Again she wanted to burn the blasted sock, if only to watch the smile melt off his face. But if now he felt she would _enjoy_ destroying it—she frowned. "For someone who just gave me a gift, you seem to enjoy teasing me with it."

"Azula, if my intention was to tease you with it, I wouldn't have to show myself. I could have just left it hanging there on the bars, without a word. Which I ordinarily do, in other places," he added. "But then _they_ know I'm coming."

"So why not me, then?" Now she was frowning at him. "Why do I warrant your _special _attention?"

"Perhaps special is the right word," he said. "Although the word itself is very overused. But at the same time, it's still true. It still applies." The twinkle returned to his eye. "You're _all_ special."

"But for you to take such an interest in me," Azula said, enjoying the twists of words, "you somehow find me _more_ special than others, correct?"

More eye twinkle. "In a sense."

"Why, then?" She never thought she would hate someone twinkling their eyes at her. No—that wasn't right. Uncle Iroh had done his share.

"I think because for the longest time, you haven't allowed people to think you're special. Or rather, special for the wrong reasons."

"Why?" Azula rather enjoyed that thought. "Because I'm good at what I do? Getting people to do what I want?"

"No…" He looked at her with… _compassion_, of all things? "Because you're more interested in having people _fear_ you, than to have people _love_ you."

"That's true, of course," she said matter-of-factly. "But you say that like it's a _bad_ thing. That's how the world works."

A sad smile from the cheerily-dressed man. "And I'm afraid that's how you've grown up to think that's how the world is… without thinking there could be more."

"That's…" Azula could lie with the best of them, naturally, but lying to herself… that she had never done. She remembered those moments of awkwardness with Ty Lee at the party on Ember Island, months ago. How Ty Lee had managed to connect with so many of the others, and find happiness… when she never could. How even Mai had managed to find someone—Zuko, of all people—whereas she had… well.

Of course, lying to yourself and lying to an opponent were two different things. "That's something I've considered," she said smoothly. "But fear is _so_ much more useful for motivation."

The man gave her a look and a smile which said he knew what he was hearing, and that it wasn't the truth.

Abruptly Azula chose another tack, one to reassert control. "I've decided to accept your gift," she said, walking to the bars and taking the sock down from them.

The man nodded. "Very well."

She stopped, and smiled. "But I've decided to open it later."

The man smiled his cheery smile again. "Suit yourself. I hope you enjoy it in any case. Farewell." He turned and left.

Just before he disappeared from the mirror, Azula called out, "I am curious, though."

The man turned and came back into speaking range again. "Yes?"

"Aren't you the least bit worried about the guards?"

Now the man really smiled. He laid a finger aside of his nose and tapped it a few times, then turned and left.

o o o

It was very weird, hiding a bright red sock in a gray place like that.

There was a devilish part of her (which was a big part of her, big surprise) that was tempted to let her jailors _find_ this bright red thing, mainly to enjoy watching them tear themselves apart as to how it got in here, who brought it in here, what reasons could they have for doing it, and so on, but she didn't. The sock was hers, after all.

Of course, she herself wondered who in the world that bright red man was, and why he had brought this… thing, whatever it was. Which she still hadn't opened. So in a certain sense, she was actually hiding the sock from herself.

And, given the environment she was in, that worked out about as well as expected.

The incarnation of Mai wearing her face faded into being next to her on the bunk one evening. "So you still haven't opened it."

Azula turned away from Mai-Azula with a sudden frown. "No."

A sigh of exasperation. "Fine, suit yourself. You know it'll bother you until you do."

There was a giggle. Mai-Azula frowned, and she turned. "What?"

She was looking at a version of Ty Lee, pink-and-red gymnast's clothes and all, who also wore Azula's face. And was still giggling. "That's what _he_ said. 'Suit yourself.' It's kind of funny, really."

Mai-Azula turned away. "It's annoying."

Ty Lee-Azula put her hands on her hips, leaned toward Mai-Azula, and made a face. "Fine. Even if _you_ don't see what's funny about it."

Mai-Azula sighed. "Stop doing that."

Ty Lee-Azula kept making faces, Mai-Azula kept grumbling, and Azula herself was close to sighing, too. She knew these images weren't real, they were part of her imagination, they were all in her head, but she didn't enjoy her mental noise being visualized.

A black and red armor-clad version of herself came out of nowhere between the images of her friends. "All right, _stop_."

The other two, more out of surprise than anything else, stopped. Azula smiled and went back to her thoughts.

Armor-Azula all but slithered over next to her in a strange, liquid, gliding move. "Do you _really_ want to know why you won't open your present?" she asked innocently enough. A cruel smile came to her face. "It's because you don't want to face your past. You're a coward."

Ty Lee-Azula all but stamped her foot. "She _is not!_"

"Why do you say she's a coward?" asked Mai-Azula. "Why do you think that weird red… _thing_ has anything to do with her past?"

"It's simple, really." Armor-Azula turned to face her. "Whoever that red man was knows who she is. He said it was a present for her; something she'd like, he thinks. If he knows what she likes, then he knows about her past."

A sour look from Mai-Azula. "That is one of the most twisted trails of logic I've ever heard."

"Given who we are, you're surprised?"

"No."

"All right," Ty Lee-Azula said. "Let's say whatever this is is from her past. She has every right to face it when she's ready. That doesn't make her a coward!"

"Oh, but I think she is." The cruel smile returned to Armor-Azula's face. "Everything in her life til now she's faced head-on—never backing away from what she can do. _This_ time, she did. If, as you say, she's waiting til she's ready to face it… she'll never be ready. She'll never face it. She's a coward."

"She _is not!_"

"So let's say a strange man you've never met who _says_ he knows you hands you a package and tells you to open it." Mai-Azula looked at her armored self flatly. "Would _you_ go ahead and trust him?"

"That's a silly question." Armor-Azula gestured dismissively. "Of course not."

"Does not trusting make you a coward?"

"Of course not. I'm simply being careful."

Mai-Azula pointed at Azula. "So why is she a coward when you're not?"

Armor-Azula laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not her!"

"You're as much her as I am."

"Yeah!" Ty Lee-Azula piped in. "So don't call her a coward!"

That started a general bickering hubbub between the three of them; Azula brought her hands to her head. After a moment, she brought her hands down hard into her lap. "All right!" she said exasperatedly. "I'll open it."

That brought her three selves to a standstill. Armor-Azula smiled, satisfied. "Good."

Azula brought the sock out from its hiding place, again momentarily shocked at how bright the red thing was in this gray place. She sat there for a moment with the sock in front of her. For all that the cheery red man had talked about her "opening" her present, there really wasn't anything to open. The top of the sock was loose. If there had been something dangerous in there, animal, poison, or otherwise, it could have wandered or seeped out. There really wasn't any danger.

"Says the woman who's about to put her hand into a strange sock," Mai-Azula said. Ty Lee-Azula shushed her.

Azula glared at her too, mainly because it felt good. She turned back to the sock and reached in.

There wasn't anything in the top part of the sock, so she reached in a little further. Her fingers touched something round… several somethings. She grabbed a handful and brought it out.

What she held she found she didn't expect. Ty Lee-Azula tilted her head. "Bottles?"

Azula unstoppered one of the black bottles and looked in. She sniffed it. "Shampoo."

"Oh, I know what those are!" said Ty Lee-Azula. "Soaps and lotions from the royal spa!"

"That red man is indeed mysterious." Mai-Azula smiled slightly.

Azula gave her a comradely "knock it off" frown. She took a long sniff of the shampoo in her hand, and even despite where she was and how she had felt, she felt more relaxed. She remembered those days at the royal spa, not so long ago; laying there and allowing the servants to pamper her made her feel… well, part of who she was. Royal.

"So it's shampoo," said Armor-Azula. She smirked. "How do you think you're going to use it?"

"Silly." Ty Lee-Azula waved that away smiling. "The guards let her wash herself if she wants to. She can find a way."

Azula was rather pleased at how quickly the backbiting part of herself had been shut down. She reached in the sock again, wondering how much of a supply the cheery red man had given her—and she touched a box. "That's odd." She brought it out. It was a red and yellow-accented box. She sniffed it, then, surprised, opened it. "Cinnamon fire flakes?"

"_Fire flakes?_" Mai-Azula and Ty Lee-Azula chorused.

Azula looked at the box, marveling at it. "Why, I haven't had cinnamon fire flakes since… since…" Her voice grew small. "Since I was a child."

Mai-Azula all but rolled her eyes. "And somehow this is a bad thing." Ty Lee-Azula grinned and gave her a nudge with her elbow.

"I used to love them." Azula smiled. "Especially when I learned _Zu-zu_ loved them." She laughed. "I'd make sure that I got every—last—bit of them, so that _he_ couldn't get any."

Armor-Azula looked disgusted. "Do you think we don't know all this?"

Azula giggled. "And then he'd run to _Mom-my_ and complain, with tears running down his face." She absently reached into the sock again. Her fingers touched on something, a handle, maybe. She grabbed it and pulled it out and looked at it. "He was such an easy—" Then she froze.

All of the Azulas froze, each one wearing the same slack-faced expression that she did.

In her hand was a wooden handle, which was attached to an oval of wood. The oval bore a set of closely clustered long, black bristles, and the wood was stained a warm brown. On the back was the tongue-of-flame of the Fire Nation stamped in gold.

"This… why is this here? This shouldn't _be_ here. This shouldn't _be_ here!"

Her eye caught something flitting in the mirror. She looked; sure enough, there stood the man in red.

"You! You know what this is!"

The man nodded, no smile on his face this time. "Yes."

She shook the thing in her hand. "This shouldn't _be_ here! This doesn't exist! I burned this years ago! I burned it to ashes!"

"Yes." The man nodded again. "I know."

"_Why_ did you remake this? Why did you remake this _thing?_"

His expression lightened ever so slightly. "Since we both know what this thing is, Azula, we should call it what it is."

Her expression turned savage. "_My mother_ brushed _my_ hair with this _hairbrush!_" she said, shaking it at him to punctuate her words. "I _burned _it when she started paying more attention to Zuko than me! She then told me that if I wanted my hair brushed, I could do it myself, and she walked away from me!"

"And now you have it back."

"_What makes you think_ I _**want**_ it back, old man?" she said, almost shaking. "I burned it to get back at her! I don't _want_ this! Why would you give it to me now?"

The man stood there calmly, hands joined at his belt in front of him. "Azula, I want you to think about something." He looked at her calmly, too. "I don't ordinarily spend this much time with people when I deliver things, but in your case I'm making an exception."

"Because I'm special," she threw back at him bitterly.

"Yes. You are." His expression lightened a little more for a moment, then he grew serious again. "Everything that was in that sock besides this was something you like, something from your past. Since that's the case, why would there be something in there that you wouldn't like?"

"Because you like being cruel," she said angrily. "Why are you here? To torture me for Zuko?"

"No, Azula. Like I said, he doesn't know I'm here, with you. And no, I am not cruel." He looked down slightly and raised an eyebrow. "I will admit, there have been times in the past when what I've brought has been misused." He looked at Azula again. "But no, I've never intentionally brought something to hurt anyone. And in your case, I brought these things because someone asked me to."

"Who?"

A bit of mischief caused the twinkle to return to the man's eye. "Can't you tell?"

Azula's brain was working, but it must have slipped a gear; she couldn't follow this. Or rather, the conclusion that her mind had come to just didn't make sense. Her mouth worked, but nothing came out.

The man stood there, seeming to enjoy her discomfiture, she felt. Then, after a long moment, he reached into a pocket and drew out a gold bauble on a black strap, almost egg-like but perfectly round and flat; one side of it was white with raised black markings. "Mmm, that's what I thought." He put it back in his pocket. "I'm sorry, but I must be going. I have more deliveries I have to make. That, and my friends on your roof don't like staying in one place too long." He smiled and winked. "They get skittish, you know."

"No, I don't know." By now Azula's other selves had faded away, and she felt she had more command of herself than she had had in a long time. "I don't know who you are, I don't know why you brought me these _insulting_ things—"

"_Insulting?_" The man's face lit up, and he had a good deep laugh. _Much like Uncle_, Azula thought again, and frowned. "That _is_ a new one," the man continued. "But it wasn't what I meant by them. Neither me nor the one that asked me to bring them."

"They're yours now," he said, turning to go. "You can do what you like with them, even burn them if you feel like it, although I think that's a waste. All I'd ask is that you think about them, and enjoy them, however you like."

She glared at him. "I will."

"Good." He raised a hand and smiled at her. "Take care, now." And he left.

o o o

After the man in red left, the silence really was very loud. For quite a while, not even Azula's other selves came out to comment as she tried to make sense of everything that had happened.

Finally one did.

"So what are you waiting for?"

Azula knew which one it was. It was her head, after all.

Armor-Azula stood there impatiently. "What are you waiting for? Do it! Burn it!"

Azula didn't move.

"Get rid of it! Burn it! It shouldn't be here! You did it once—you can do it again!"

"She doesn't _have_ to," Ty Lee-Azula said, _vwoop_-ing into being with her hands on hips. "She can always do it when she feels like it. When she's ready."

Armor-Azula turned on her.

"If you recall, that same sort of thinking is what led us to this point in the first place!"

Ty Lee-Azula looked hurt. "I'm only saying she doesn't have to destroy an option."

A sneer came to Armor-Azula's lip. "No you're not. You know very well what you're suggesting by that." She pointed at Azula without looking at her. "You want to save that hairbrush because _our mother_ sent it to us. You want to save some chance that we might actually mean something to her!"

"So what if I am?" Ty Lee-Azula bickered back. "Does it mean that the 'great and mighty Azula' can't be more than one thing? That she can't be sharp and decisive with everybody else but also have a softer side that actually has _feelings_ for people?"

"Not in this case! And not—about—_her!_"

Azula looked at the hairbrush in her hand.

"Well, why not?"

"You know what she did to us! You know what she said to us! You know how she feels about Zuko in comparison to us!"

Ty Lee-Azula folded her arms, a smirk on her face. "Oh, and her sending this stuff to us changes nothing, huh? _Especially_ the hairbrush?"

Armor-Azula scowled. "That _absolutely_ changes nothing because it only means that she's trying to get back into our good graces! You know what she really thinks about us!"

Azula continued to look at the hairbrush, almost studying it.

Ty Lee-Azula's smirk grew into a full smile. "Well, you're making an awful big fuss about it for something that doesn't matter."

Armor-Azula started to grow red in the face. "_I'm_ making a big fuss about it? Well, why are _you_ defending a silly hairbrush?"

Ty Lee-Azula looked away, playfully. "I dunno. Why are you attacking it?"

"Because of who sent it to us! Don't you realize that—"

Then Azula started to brush her hair.

Armor-Azula knew it instantly, and whirled on her. "_What are you doing?_ That thing is from _her!_ _ Burn it! Now!_"

Azula heard her, of course, but her only response was to keep on brushing.

"I can't believe this." Armor-Azula threw a hand in Azula's direction. "You're actually going to use _that thing_ that _she_ gave you! After all that she said. After all that she did."

Ty Lee-Azula smiled. For a moment things were quiet; Armor-Azula couldn't think of anything to say, and the only thing Azula heard was her hair coursing through the brush. It felt good.

"Oh. Well. That part I can understand." Armor-Azula folded her arms. "Might as well turn something _she_ gave you into something useful. Turn it against her."

More brushing. Ty Lee-Azula smiled even more as she walked and faded away. Armor-Azula faded away, too, as her nattering slowly dissipated into the quiet, leaving Azula all by herself with the bright red sock, the black and brown bottles, the box of fire flakes, and the old brown hairbrush.

And a smile on her face.

Which—eventually—became a very familiar smirk.


End file.
